Holly Pond's Levi Boatright (34) drives to the basket during the Broncos' loss to Westminster Christian Saturday night. (Nick Griffin for The Cullman Tribune)
HANCEVILLE, Ala. – Holly Pond faced the second-ranked ranked Westminster Christian Academy Wildcats in the Sweet 16 round of the Northwest Regional Saturday night and the Broncos found themselves in a deep hole early. The Wildcats jumped out to a double-digit lead almost immediately and never looked back, defeating Holly Pond 70-44.
Westminster got off to a 7-0 start in the first quarter, but Isaac Ludwig trimmed it to 9-3 with a shot from behind the arc midway through the period. A smothering defense and an explosive transition offense helped the Wildcats stretch the lead to 20-7 by the start of the second quarter and they continued to add to their lead in the first half.
Kyler Chaney converted an and-one play at the free-throw line to make it 24-10 early in the second, but that’s when the 3-pointers began to fall for Westminster. The Wildcats took a 33-10 lead with a 3-pointer midway through the second and continued adding to their lead, making it a 40-12 game at the half.
The lead continued to grow for Westminster in the second half, but a 3-pointer from Jordan Allbright stopped the run and made it a 53-18 game midway through the third. Devyn Tankersley converted an and-one play at the free-throw line with less than a minute to play in the quarter to cut the lead to 59-22, but the Broncos still trailed 61-22 at the start of the fourth.
The Wildcats knocked down another 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 64-22, but Holly Pond was able to put together a scoring run in the final period. Chaney scored to trim the lead to 64-30 midway through the fourth and a layup from Tankersley made it a 68-40 game with less than two minutes to play, but the deficit was too much for the Broncos to overcome and they ended up falling 70-44.
Ludwig led Holly Pond with 14 points in the loss, followed by Chaney with 12 and Allbright with six. The Broncos will lose several seniors to graduation in May, but they will also have a lot of familiar faces returning to the court next season and they’ll be hungry to put together another postseason run.
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