Selma squeaks by Demopolis

Published 12:46 am Saturday, December 20, 2008

Demopolis used a 13-3 run to tie Selma at 55-55 with 1:17 left in the game, but an Anthony Hardy shot at the buzzer rimmed out, and Selma went home with a 59-57 win.

The Tigers trailed by as many as 11 points a number of times, as the Saints got out to a 28-17 lead late in the second quarter before settling in to a 28-20 halftime lead.

That margin held true through the third quarter, and Selma took a 42-32 lead on a layup by Duprie Rivers with 5:10 left in regulation.

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That’s when Demopolis picked up the pace. The Tigers went on a 13-3 run over the next 2:52, going 4-for-5 from the floor in that span.

Trailing 55-51, Demopolis knotted the game when Hardy hit a jumper on a feed from Jonathan Marshall with 1:50 left on the clock, then Jeremy Wallace hit two big free throws with 1:17 left to tie the game for the first time, 55-55. Selma’s Wendell Lewis hit a layup with 48 seconds left to give the Saints a 57-55 lead, but Hardy made two shots from the line to tie the game at 57-57 with 37.7 seconds remaining.

A steal by Larry Cobb with 30 seconds left gave Tiger fans hope, and after a DHS timeout, Lewis blocked a Hardy layup out of bounds.

DeAngelo Norris got a steal for the Saints, then Justin Ravizee knocked down the game-winning jumper on a feed from Harris with seven seconds remaining.

Demopolis worked the ball up the floor, setting up a final shot from Hardy, but it fell away, and the Saints took the game 57-55.

“We got some good shots, but they’d go in and out,” said DHS head coach Jesse Bell. “They’d get a long rebound, and we couldn’t rotate back in time, and they made their shots at the other end.”

Demopolis was led by Hardy’s 20 points, as he went 6-for-13 in the second half from the floor and 7-for-8 for the game from the line. He also had a game-high 14 rebounds to go with two blocked shots.

Marshall added 13 points and five rebounds for the Tigers, while Fred Irby added nine points and Cobb had eight.

Selma was paced by Norris and Ravizee, who each had 22 points. Norris was 4-for-5 from three-point range and had six rebounds, while Ravizee was 6-for-7 from the line. Jamie King added nine points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field, and Lewis had a team-high 11 rebounds for the Saints.