Holly Pond suffers losses to ranked Lauderdale County, Clements teams

Staff reports The Cullman Times

DANVILLE — DANVILLE — Holly Pond High was just five minutes away from another signature win.

Just two days after beating Muscle Shoals and eighth-ranked (3A) Danville, Holly Pond had Clements on the ropes.

But the second-ranked (2A) Colts rallied late, beating Holly Pond 65-59 in the Danville Lady Hawks Thanksgiving Tournament Saturday night.

It was the second heartbreaking loss seventh-ranked (3A) Holly Pond (7-3) suffered in the tournament. The Broncos lost to sixth-ranked (3A) Lauderdale County earlier that day.

“We beat two quality teams Wednesday and lost two heartbreakers to some really good teams today,” Broncos coach Scott Adams said. “We had our chances. But our team played some really strong competition over here and that should make us better.”

Holly Pond led most of the game. The Broncos had a 19-17 lead at the end of the first quarter and led by one at halftime.

The Broncos extended their lead to eight at the end of the third quarter and led by six with a little more than five minutes remaining in the game. But that’s when Clements — led by standout center Danesha Malone — made its run.

Malone scored a game-high 24 points, leading the Colts to the win.

Haley Terry led Holly Pond with 24 points while Alisha Keller tossed in 11. Courtney Deese added eight, while Kelsey Hawkins and Haley Bagwell scored seven points each. Nora Katherine Henderson added two points.

 

Lauderdale County 60, Holly Pond 54: The Broncos fell to No. 6 (3A) Lauderdale County in the semifinals of the Danville tournament despite overcoming an early double-digit deficit.

Terry scored 16 points to lead No. 7 Holly Pond, which fell behind 14-2 before grabbing a 20-16 advantage after the first quarter.

Bagwell tossed in 14 points and Deese had 10, while Hawkins and Keller added seven each.

 

Cold Springs 54, Cullman 37: The top-ranked (2A) Eagles took a 10-point lead into halftime and outscored Cullman (2-6) 26-19 in the second half in a consolation game in the Brewer Thanksgiving tournament.

Georgia Myrex led all scorers with 23 points, while Abby Myrex tossed in 14. Ka-Ka Crider followed with six points, while Kaitlyn Alums scored four and Katie Self scored two.

Courtney Rice scored five points for Cold Springs (5-1), while pulling down 10 rebounds and recording four steals.

Savannah Nichols, Kacy Forrest and Katherine Nyquist led Cullman with six points each.

Decatur 55, Cold Springs 47: Thirty-one turnovers and a poor performance at the free throw line led to the Eagles’ first loss of the season. Cold Springs only made 7 of 17 from the charity stripe.

Georgia Myrex led Cold Springs with 12 points and Abby Myrex added 11. Senior standout Brittany McCloud led Decatur with 26 points.

Holly Pond 51, Danville 43: Holly Pond defeated tournament host Danville Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the eighth-ranked (3A) Hawks’ tournament.

Terry poured in 22 points to lead the Broncos, including 11 in the fourth quarter. Bagwell had nine, Keller posted seven and Hawkins added six for Holly Pond, which led 8-6 after one quarter and 26-21 at halftime.

The teams were tied at 35 entering the fourth quarter, where Holly Pond outscored Danville 16-8.

VARSITY BOYS

Arab 60, Cullman 50: Arab outscored Cullman 37-19 in the second half Friday to advance to the finals of the Holly Pond Thanksgiving Tournament.

Grayson Smith scored 16 points to lead Cullman (3-1), which led 14-9 after one quarter and 31-23 at halftime. Casey Brown tossed in 15 points, while Andrew Horn and Cory Calvert added four apiece.

The Bearcats faced Madison County Saturday in the tournament’s third-place game.

Jonathan Embry paced Arab (7-1), which faced Boaz Saturday in the tournament championship game.

West Point 69, Holly Pond 59: West Point advanced to the fifth-place game of the Holly Pond Thanksgiving Tournament by beating Holly Pond for the second time this week.

Mark Laney finished with a game-high 21 points to lead West Point (2-5), which defeated Holly Pond 70-65 on Tuesday for its first win of the season. Zach Baswell scored 13 points, Zack Douglas had 11 and Ethan Tilley added eight.

For Holly Pond (1-6), Jacob Walker scored 20 points, Wesley Graham had 13 and Thomas Hays added 11.

Fairview 57, Vinemont 55: Fairview beat Holly Pond Friday in the Holly Pond tournament to advance to Saturday’s fifth-place game against West Point.

Nathan Ring paced the Aggies (4-3) with 20 points, while Ryan Parker and Trett Hardman added 10 each.

Vinemont (1-4) was led by Reno Jones’ 17 points, while Cory Meyer and Brock Meherg tossed in 14 apiece.