Demopolis’ frenetic comeback falls just short in loss to Greene County

Demopolis hung 25 points on the board in the fourth quarter to mount a tremendous comeback effort against Greene County on Senior Night Thursday before ultimately falling 48-47.

Demopolis trailed by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter before a Derrick Birl three-pointer from the left wing with 26.2 seconds remaining cut the deficit to 48-46. When Greene County turned the ball over five seconds later, the crowd in attendance at the Demopolis High gymnasium erupted.

“I think that man press, that fire press is what kind of helped us out. Getting a man matchup on them, fire press, trapping the first guy and taking away the second pass kind of helped us get in it,” Demopolis coach Ashley Allen said. “We had to get a smaller group in there. It was a faster group and that helped us. It was a lot of young guys. I hate to do that on Senior Night, but I had to do what I had to do.”

Off the inbound pass following a timeout, Demopolis dumped it to senior stalwart Josh Moore who drew substantial contact while working down the baseline against a double-team. Moore connected on the back end of a one-and-one opportunity to cut the deficit to 48-47 with 14.5 seconds to play.

The press proved beneficial for Demopolis again seconds later as Demopolis senior Ladarius Adams dove for a loose ball steal and Allen got the timeout call in to set up a potential game-winning play.

The inbound pass came in clean but Demopolis coughed it up on a drive opportunity seconds later and the hometown crowd jeered as the official on the baseline signaled possession in favor of Greene County while all five DHS players pointed to the GCHS player they believed knocked the ball out of bounds.

With only 5.5 seconds remaining, Greene County threw the ball deep and drew the foul with 1.7 to play. GCHS missed the front end of a one-and-one while Demopolis grabbed the rebound but got the timeout call with only 0.1 remaining on the clock, thwarting the frenetic come-from-behind attempt.

“I learned that they’re not going to give up. They’re not going to give up,” Allen said of what he learned about his team during the effort. “They do a little bit better without the pressure on them, but they’re getting a lot better with the pressure. It’s a good thing to see right now, especially out of the young guys for the future.”

Adams led Demopolis with 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Moore added seven points and 11 rebounds while Xavier Jowers had nine points and five rebounds. Shakari Williams finished with seven points in the effort.

Jeremy Hutton paced Greene County with 16 points while Nicholus Kimbrough had eight.

Demopolis (11-9) is set to close the regular season Friday when it travels to Selma in its final preparation for next week’s area tournament.

“I’ve got to see a little bit more hustle. We’re not doing fundamentals like we should,” Allen said. “We’re fundamentally sound in spurts of the game but not the entirety. We need a lot more consistency on the fundamental part.”

Demopolis is set to begin area tournament play against top-seeded host and Class 5A’s No. 2 ranked team Sumter Central Tuesday.