Brookhaven extends the pain, Hillcrest out
Southern Sports & Travel, By Darron Thomas
On a cool blustery January Saturday evening three weeks ago Brookhaven had just dropped an 80-70 road loss to Trinity in Natchez to fall to 11-9. The six time defending Class AA Champions had suffered a tough road loss to Bowling Green the previous night and looked to be in disarray. The chatter was rampant and the time to declare that the run had ended seemed to be at hand.
Flash forward to last night and those losses seem to be years removed as Brookhaven has made a statement over their past six games that if they’re going to relinquish their perch atop Class AA basketball it will take a monumental effort to unseat them.
Hillcrest was another in a line of top Class AA squads to discover the difficulty of eliminating Brookhaven at a state tournament as two Brock Smith free throws with 4 seconds remaining in regulation ended 4th ranked Hillcrest’s season and sent Brookhaven into the semi-finals with a dramatic 31-30 win.
Hillcrest grabbed an early 2-0 lead on a Spencer Burroughs offensive rebound and put back just over one minute into the opening quarter of play but Hillcrest would experience the same frustration Central Private saw just six days ago when Brookhaven ended their season. A slow deliberate spread offense with the objective being backdoor lay-ins saw Brookhaven take a 6-3 lead on a Brock Smith assist to a cutting Matthew Evans. (Above) Kevin Nunn (#13) of Hillcrest launches a 3-point attempt
In what would prove to be an effective tool against the Hillcrest defense Brookhaven converted on a well devised in-bounds play underneath their own basket as Jeff Rushing found an open Matthew Evans for a lay-in and an 8-3 lead at the 2:18 mark of the quarter.
Terrance Staten’s basket in the paint pulled Hillcrest to within three points at 8-5 but Brookhaven’s ability to get easy baskets out of a spread offense that has been to this point unstoppable extended the lead to 12-5 on a Sidney Chaffin lob to Brock Smith and Matthew Evans’ backdoor assist to Chaffin to end the opening quarter of play.
Sidney Chaffin sank one of two free throws following a Hillcrest technical foul to give Brookhaven their biggest lead at 17-8 with 3:33 remaining in the half but Hillcrest began showing signs of strengthening on the defensive end. Hillcrest canned 4 of 6 free throws off of Brookhaven turnovers the remaining two minutes of the quarter to trim the deficit to 18-12 at the half.
Brookhaven quickly pushed their lead to 20-12 on a Sidney Chaffin baseline drive but Hillcrest began grabbing momentum. A Ben Lewis jumper from the elbow and a Terrance Staten offensive rebound and put back pulled Hillcrest to 20-16 with 4:48 remaining in the quarter.
Lewis brought the Hillcrest crowd to their feet on a steal and basket at the 2:50 mark and Preston Haynes drained a 3-pointer from the corner to finish off a 9-0 run and give Hillcrest a 21-20 lead, their first since 2-0. (Above) Jeff Rushing of Brookhaven finds Matthew Evans on in-bounds play
Brookhaven would regain the lead at 23-21 on a Matthew Evans basket, plus one, with 54 seconds left to wrap up the third quarter.
Following a Terrance Staten free throw, Brock Smith’s driving lay-in extended the Brookhaven lead to 25-22 with 5:40 remaining. Preston Haynes collected his second 3-pointer of the contest as the senior drilled one from the wing to knot the game at 25-25.
Brookhaven managed to stretch back out to a four point advantage at 29-25 as Brock Smith and Jeff Rushing each canned two free throws but at the 1:50 mark Hillcrest got a big 3-point basket from junior Robert Johnson to pull the Cougars to within one point at 29-28.
Hillcrest cashed in on a Brookhaven turnover and retook the lead at 30-29 on a Spencer Burroughs 17 foot jumper with 1:12 remaining in regulation as the crowd in the Gray Gymnasium reached fever pitch.
Brookhaven remained in their spread offensive set and burned off nearly one minute off the clock before calling a timeout with 15 seconds remaining. Hillcrest’s near steal and deflection out of bounds on the baseline with 7 seconds remaining set up Brookhaven underneath their own basket. (Above) Brookhaven's Matthew Evans (#4) executes with a backdoor lay-in
Brookhaven then executed what they’ve been so successful at doing the entire post-season as Jeff Rushing found a cutting Brock Smith under the basket. Smith was fouled with 4.3 seconds remaining in regulation and calmly sank both free throws as Brookhaven regained the lead at 31-30.
Following a Hillcrest timeout the Cougars’ last ditch effort fell short just a few feet from the basket as time expired and the Brookhaven faithful went wild.
Since falling to 11-9 after the loss at Trinity on January 22 Brookhaven has reeled off wins over Columbia, Simpson, top ranked Central Private, River Oaks and Hillcrest to improve to 17-10 and will take on 2nd ranked Marshall Friday night in the Class AA semi-finals.
Brock Smith led Brookhaven with 12 points, Matthew Evans added 10, Sidney Chaffin 5 and Gage Posey and Jeff Rushing 2 each.
Preston Haynes led Hillcrest (25-5) with 8 points, Robert Johnson added 7, Terrance Staten 6, Ben Lewis 5 and Spencer Burroughs 4.