BREMEN, Ala. – Good Hope and Hanceville returned to Cold Springs High School Saturday to battle it out for this year’s county tournament championship and after a tight first half, the Raiders outscored the Bulldogs 22-11 in the second half to pull away and claim the county crown with a 35-21 win.
Baskets by Hanceville’s Brycen Harris and Good Hope’s Eli Drake got things started at 2-2 but a pair of three-pointers from Cooper Johnson and Drake gave the Raiders an early, 8-2 advantage. However, Lincoln Jones and Ethan Morrow each scored on the other end in the final minute of the first to trim the Good Hope lead to 8-6 going into the second.
Neither team was able to find much offensive success in the second quarter. Harris laid one in to tie the game at 8 and after Johnson split a pair of free throws on the other end, Deacon Brewer scored inside to give the Bulldogs a 10-9 lead with two minutes remaining in the first half. Tucker Screws and Ryker Hancock each hit a free throw to put the Raiders back in front 11-10 and Drake took a steal the other way for an easy bucket just before the end of the period to give Good Hope a 13-10 lead at the halftime break.
The Raiders found their rhythm early in the second half, stretching their lead to 20-10 on a pair of Johnson baskets and another three from Drake. Back to back buckets from Screws made it a 24-11 game later in the third and Chase Boles added another score to make it 26-11. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, Harris was able to score six straight points to end the third quarter and cut Good Hope’s lead down to 26-17 going into the fourth.
Screws answered Harris’ scoring run with six straight points of his own, extending the Raider lead to 32-17 with just over three minutes to play. Jones scored on the other end to stop the run, but Drake answered with his third three-pointer of the night to wrap up a 35-21, county championship win for Good Hope.
Drake led the Raiders with 13 points in the win, followed by Screws with 11 and Johnson with eight. Harris led the way for Hanceville with 13 points in the loss and Jones added four.
2023 All-County Team
Cooper Johnson, Good Hope
Eli Drake, Good Hope
Tucker Screws, Good Hope
Ryker Hancock, Good Hope
Webb Buchanan, Good Hope
Brycen Harris, Hanceville
Deacon Brewer, Hanceville
Lincoln Jones, Hanceville
Rush Lamar, West Point
Caden Pike, West Point
Francisco Diaz, Parkside
Lyric Smith, Parkside
Lindon Hill, Cold Springs
Eli Voce, Cold Springs
Cash Huddleston, Holly Pond
Landon Posey, Holly Pond
Max Jones, Vinemont
Colt Dean, Fairview
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