Longhorns lose state title bid at buzzer
MONTGOMERY — Q.D. Tinsley drained 18 seconds off the clock and stuck a dagger in Marengo Academy’s heart with a pull-up jumper at the buzzer to hand Chambers a 46-43 win in the AISA Class A boys state title game Friday night.
“I was trying to get them back in a zone. I take full credit for that loss. He made a great shot, but I should have had them back in a zone,” Marengo Academy coach Larry Huckabee said of the game’s definitive sequence. “I was trying to give them the signal, but they didn’t see it. Still, he just made a great shot.”
The Longhorns had tied the game at 43 with 19 seconds to play when Hayden Huckabee fed Cason Cook in the post for the lay-in. The basket represented the first points scored by any Longhorn other than Shade Pritchett in the fourth quarter.
Marengo Academy got the opportunity to tie the game when its trap forced a Chambers turnover with 25.5 seconds to go. The fortuitous turnover came only two seconds after Marengo turned it over with a traveling violation.
Tinsley, who scored only 10 points on the night, showed off his heroics with 49.5 seconds to play when he went coast to coast to put his team up 43-41.
Moments earlier, Pritchett tipped a Chambers pass out to Hayden Huckabee on an impromptu transition give-and-go that saw the junior guard finish what he started to knot the game at 41 with less than a minute to play.
Chambers built its second largest lead of the quarter when Demetrius Lemon slammed home a rebound off a missed jumper to put the Rebels up 41-37.
Undaunted, Pritchett went from one baseline to the other to drop in a reverse lay-up and cut the deficit to 41-39.
Chambers led 38-33 just minutes earlier when Anthony Antonelli grabbed a rebound and fed Pritchett in transition to slice it to 38-35.
The Longhorns trailed 25-17 at the half after a 13-9 run in the opening quarter.
In the game’s final 16 minutes, Larry Huckabee’s team traded in jumpers for drives and began attacking the basket en route to a 16-11 third-quarter march.
“I thought they got a little winded and we started making a few shots. What really hurt us in the first half was that everything we put up, they were altering our shots,” Larry Huckabee said. “We kind of fussed at them in the dressing room. Shoot your shot and don’t worry about if they block it. I thought we did that better in the second half and we attacked the goal better in the second half.”
Pritchett finished the night with 15 points for the Longhorns. Cason Cook had 14 points and 15 rebounds. Antonelli had seven points and 10 boards while Hayden Huckabee added seven points.
The Longhorns did not go to the bench once in the entire 32-minute contest.
“Great effort. I knew I had to go about five or six or seven on the subs. To win the game, I know those five would have to have a great game today and go the whole game. I thought we got a little tired. They ran eight, nine, 10 deep,” Larry Huckabee said.
Tinsley and Lemon each finished with 10 for Chambers while Tae Henry had nine points and nine rebounds in the win.
The Longhorns wrap up their season at 16-12 after having finished the regular season at 11-11.
“I told them when we played Tuscaloosa in the last regular season game, we had six games left. That was a good turning point for us,” Larry Huckabee said of his team’s postseason run. “We had six games left and I always thought we could win those six. We played hard. We beat four Top 10 teams in the last two to three weeks.”
