Sunday, December 6, 2015

Worth County Boys Second at Albany

Worth County’s boys completed an improbable run through the Albany Tournament by throwing a scare into Stanberry before falling 69-61 to take second place. They fell behind by as much as 18-2 in the first quarter before they realized they could compete with Stanberry, one of the elite teams in the area. After that, they completely outplayed the Bulldogs for the next three quarters, coming within five twice before falling by eight.

There were a lot of positive comments about Worth County’s play throughout the tournament with folks saying they were playing up to their potential. They showed that their win over King City, when they erased a 19-point deficit, was no accident.

Stanberry received an ill-advised technical foul when one of their players fouled Drake Kinsella as he was attempting a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer with Worth County down 18-4; one of their other players protested the call and got a technical foul and sat out the rest of the game. That swung the game around and Stanberry, instead of romping to an easy win, had to hold off several charges from Worth County the rest of the way.

Tiger freshman Caleb Parman played the game of his life to help his team’s chances; he came off the bench and hit a 3-pointer at the start of the second quarter to spark a rally that brought the Tigers to within 20-15 early in the second. Mason Hawk followed with a free throw, Drake Simmons, another freshman, hit a shot from the left baseline, and Isaac Alarcon stripped a Stanberry player and stuck it in the basket during the run.

Stanberry had the experience from playing in two state tournaments in 2013 and 2014 and an elite eight finish last year to hold off Worth County and get the win. But Worth County showed that they are not going to be a pushover this year after having won only eight games last year.

Brevyn Ross led several fast breaks to rescue the Tigers when they were on the brink; Caleb Parman hit two 3-pointers late in the third after Worth County had fallen behind by 16; Isaac Alarcon hit a 3-pointer late in the game to make it 64-59 before Ross missed a runner than would have made it four points before Stanberry hit their free throws down the stretch to win it.

Parman had 15 points to lead the Tigers. Drake Kinsella had 12, Cade Allee and Brevyn Ross 9 each, Mason Hawk and Isaac Alarcon had 5 each, Ryan McClellan had 4, and Drake Simmons had 2.

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