Jan. 21—FALKVILLE — The Danville Hawks opened the Morgan County basketball tournament Tuesday with a sweep of Brewer.
The varsity girls won 56-44, while the boys won 49-45. Both team advanced to the play top seeded teams in the tournament Wednesday night: the Priceville girls and West Morgan boys.
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Danville girls 56, Falkville 44: The Danville proved Tuesday night that basketball is a four quarter game.
Playing in the first round of the Morgan County tournament, the Hawks trailed Brewer through the first three quarters, including by double digits in the third. However, Danville came from behind with a 23-6 fourth quarter to steal the win 56-44.
“At the beginning of the game, we set three goals: control turnovers, play as a team and play all four quarters,” Danville’s Addison Prater said. “Being on an eight-in-a-row losing streak, we were kind of tired of it. We just kept fighting, and the shots started falling.”
Danville’s key to a comeback came in not just playing all four quarters, but playing the entire length of the court. The Hawks turned up the pressure late in the game, forcing the Patriots into mistakes and turnovers.
“That was our game plan going in, but we had to make some adjustments because they have some really good post players,” said Danville head coach Mallory Alberti. “The girls did a good job of that, and we played really good defense down the stretch.”
While Danville did a good job of playing all four quarters, Brewer head coach Jonathan Lacy said his team didn’t.
“We competed hard for three quarters, and at the end we got away from what we’d been doing, which was protecting the basketball and working it inside,” Lacy said. “We have a young team, and we have to learn to play the full 32 minutes. We can’t just play 24 if we want to win playoff-style basketball.”
Prater led Danville with 14 points, and Kirstyn Robinson added 13. Hannah Morrison led Brewer with 17.
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Danville boys 49, Brewer 45: While they never pulled away, the Hawks kept control of the game throughout Tuesday, and it allowed them to pick up a crucial win.
“They tried to press and speed us up, but we just played the game at our pace,” said Danville head coach Sam Wallace. “We took high quality shots on offense, and defensively we just made them go where they didn’t want to go.”
Ty Bailey led Danville with 14 points, while Donjay Compton finished with 13. Cale Smith led Brewer with a game-high 19.
Danville will play Class 4A, No. 4 West Morgan on Wednesday night.
“We’re not dumb. We know they’re really good, but this (win) gives us a lot of confidence,” Wallace said. “We’ve already played them twice, and we’ll play them at least one more time in the area tournament, so we’re just trying to learn something every time we play them.”
— caleb.suggs@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2
