HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The no. 4 seed, Vinemont, faced off against the no. 5 seed, Cold Springs, in the first JV boys matchup of the day on Saturday afternoon. Cold Springs held a slim lead at the first period and stretched it out to double digits at the half. Their lead didn’t leave double digits the rest of the way, as they would go on to defeat Vinemont, 43-31, to move on to the semifinals.
Brandon Chasteen got the scoring started for Cold Springs with a driving layup, but Vinemont took a 5-2 lead on five straight points by Brayden Harbison. Chasteen banked in a three from the top of the key and later added a shot down to give Cold Springs a 7-5 lead late in the first quarter. Each team split their respective free throws to end the first, and Cold Springs would take an 8-6 lead into the second period.
Brooks Belcher knocked down a short jumper, and Liam Epperly dropped in a floater to widen Cold Springs’ lead to 12-6. Baskets by Jhace Cornelius and Banks Borwick made it a 14-10 game more than midway through the second. Belcher scored three straight points to help increase Cold Springs’ lead to 17-10. Travis Speegle dropped in a floater to trim the deficit to five at 17-12. Jaxon Smith drilled a three from the left wing, and Chasteen later added a pair of free throws to put Cold Springs ahead, 22-12, at the half.
A pair of rebounds and putbacks by Brooks Black and Smith stretched Cold Springs’ lead to 26-14. Later in the third quarter, Belcher hit a pair of baskets down low to give Cold Springs a 30-16 lead. Five straight points by Harbison cut the Vinemont deficit to nine at 30-21. Smith knocked down a shot down low, and Chasteen knocked down two more from the free throw line to put Cold Springs ahead, 34-21. Chasteen grabbed the inbounds pass and put in a quick layup just before the buzzer to give Cold Springs a 36-23 lead going into the final quarter.
Neither team hit for almost two-and-a-half minutes to start out the fourth period before a basket in the paint by Harbison made it a 36-25 game. A basket down low by Black and two more free throws by Chasteen gave Cold Springs a 40-26 lead, and they were able to keep Vinemont at arm’s length the rest of the way after that, as they ended up knocking off Vinemont, 43-31, to move on to the next round.
Chasteen finished with 16 points for Cold Springs. Belcher added 14 points, and Smith posted seven points. Harbison led the way for Vinemont with 13 points.
Cold Springs’ head coach Casey Howell was pleased with his team’s effort on both sides of the ball.
“Great job by our guys defensively. Effort was what we’ve been talking about the past couple of weeks. When we go hard, we’re pretty good, but when we don’t, it’s a dogfight. We didn’t play that great last night. We didn’t give the best effort, but we talked about that the past couple of days. We’ve seen it in practice and in the last couple of games, we’ve seen it. They went extremely hard. They boxed out, they limited turnovers, and we were patient offensively when we needed to. We now get West Point,” Howell said.
Chasteen and Belcher combined for 30 of Cold Springs’ 43 points in the game, and Howell couldn’t have been more pleased of their effort from start to finish. Cold Springs will take on the no. 1 seed, West Point, Monday at 1:15 p.m., and Howell knows it will take a lot to pull off the upset of the top-seeded Warriors.
“Chasteen’s been the guy for us all year. He helps us get into our stuff. Belcher has been hurt. He didn’t look good last night, health-wise. Thank God, we’ve got a good trainer that taped him up really good, and he was able to get up and down the court full speed for us,” Howell said. “They’re good. We’ll have to play really good. We’ll have to box out, and the key will definitely be their pressure as far as handling it, not turning the ball over, and limiting their shots.”
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