The East Ridge Pioneers made an incredible comeback in the fourth quarter at Hixson Friday night, but unfortunately, close doesn’t count for much in high school basketball.
The Wildcats didn’t exactly set the woods on fire with their free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter, but it was just good enough to save the day as Hixson prevailed by a 58-53 final in a game that really wasn’t that close.
“A district win against a team like East Ridge is always a good win for us, but we made it a little too interesting at the end,” said Hixson coach Lawanza Crutcher after the final horn sounded.
“East Ridge is a great shooting team and we knew they would eventually make their shots, but we had a couple of big defensive stops and we made just enough free throws to pull it out.
“I really liked our effort, but we just have to play smarter. We stepped it up in the third quarter as we put the pedal to the metal, but we started playing not to lose and we started watching the clock. We did just enough the win the game.
“I thought we played too well to give it up at the end and I felt like we showed a lot of character by holding them off. We didn’t hit all of our free throws, but we hit the big ones and that was just enough to win the game,” Crutcher added.
A short baseline jumper with a second left by Tyrese Hatcher allowed Hixson to take a 14-12 lead when the first quarter ended.
A 9-0 run early in the second stanza allowed the Wildcats to stretch lead, but two free throws from Jordan Harvey and a putback by Juwuan Simmons in the final minute allowed East Ridge to stay within six at the break.
The third quarter may have been the turning point as it was Hixson’s best eight-minute segment and East Ridge’s worst.
A short jumper on the baseline from Harvey got the Pioneers within 31-25 in the first minute of the second half, but by the time Aaron Eberthardt scored on a drive from the wing with 27 seconds left, Hixson had scored 10 straight and were threatening to blow this one wide open.
The Pioneers had four points during that quarter and had a whopping two rebounds, so they're really lucky the Hixson lead wasn't bigger than it was.
But that’s when East Ridge went to work.
Elijah Garmany, who led the Pioneers with 22 points, scored 13 in the fourth quarter alone as East Ridge made things interesting.
A putback from Deaunta Johnson with 50 seconds left got the Pioneers within two at 55-53, but Hixson then responded by hitting three of six free throws down the stretch to save the day.
Jamvis Ponder, Jahvon Beard and Hatcher all hit one of two to keep the Wildcats ahead as East Ridge never scored again.
“We played a good fourth quarter, but that’s about it,” said East Ridge coach Jon Goddard matter of factly after the game ended.
“We don’t have a lot of late-game experience like that so we didn’t get the best shot that we needed and we have to do a better job of recognizing the defense the other team is playing. We’ll get it fixed as we’ll be okay on down the road, but we kept waiting for somebody else to step up in the third quarter and nobody ever did,” he added.
Braven Horton had 19 points to lead Hixson, including 16 in the first half. Ponder followed with 13 while Terry Moorer added nine.
Garmany had 22 for the Pioneers while Johnson had 10 and Harvey eight.
Hixson won the rebound battle by an unofficial 31-30 margin as Beard had eight for the Wildcats. Hatcher, Moorer and Ponder all grabbed five each. Garmany had seven rebounds for East Ridge while Johnson had six and Harvey five.
Hixson was just 15 of 31 from the free throw line and just 11 of 22 in the fourth quarter, but as coach Crutcher said, it was just good enough.
Hixson, now 2-1 overall and 1-1 in District 6-AA, returns to action at GPS Saturday afternoon in a game against Notre Dame in the Hoops for Hope gathering.
East Ridge, now 1-2 and 0-2 in 6-AA play, will be on the road again for its next game against Howard on Tuesday as the Pioneers play their first 11 games away from home.
EAST RIDGE GIRLS 53, HIXSON 24: Jayla Stone personally outscored Hixson as she set the pace for the winning Lady Pioneers with 30 points. Mya Adams added 10 for the winners as East Ridge had a scoring advantage in every quarter.
Kirby Brown was the only Hixson player in double figures as she finished with 10 points.
GIRLS SUMMARY
EAST RIDGE 13 10 21 9 -- 53
HIXSON 4 6 9 5 -- 24
EAST RIDGE (53) – Stone 30, Hill 2, Kendrick 3, Murphy, Jordan 6, Toney, Adams 10, Willbanks, Dozier 2, Moton, Harvey, Gomez, Hubbard.
HIXSON (24) – Jett, Swafford 4, Taylor, Ervin 3, Wyatt 1, Brown 10, Moran 2, Hunter 2, Henley 2, Pettaway.
3-POINT GOALS: East Ridge 4 (Stone 2, Kendrick, Jordan); Hixson 1 (Brown).
BOYS SUMMARY
EAST RIDGE 12 11 4 26 -- 53
HIXSON 14 15 12 17 -- 58
EAST RIDGE (53) – Johnson 10, Hinton 5, Mathis, Stewart, Simmons 2, Harvey 8, Garmany 22, Martin, Eberhardt 6.
HIXSON (58) – Alemeda 4, Hatcher 3, Moorer 9, Ponder 13, Horton 19, Beard 4, Stegall, Sanderfer 6, Long, White.
3-POINT GOALS: East Ridge 6 (Hinton, Harvey, Garmany 4); Hixson 3 (Ponder, Horton, Sanderfer).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)