Isaiah Neal
HAGERSTOWN, Ind. – The Hagerstown boys basketball team did all it could do on Tuesday night to keep its hopes alive in the Tri-Eastern Conference title chase.
“We’ll take it,” Hagerstown Head Coach Bobby Jones said after his team’s 58-50 victory over Tri. “It’s obvious that those kids have bought into what (Tri Head) Coach Cary Ellis and the coaching staff are preaching to them.”
“That’s a sign of a team that is about to turn a corner,” Jones added. “I think our guys were a little shell-shocked at the beginning seeing how hard Tri was playing and didn’t quite expect it.”
Prior to the game, Hagerstown honored seniors Mason Stitt, Bret Templin, Jordan Auker and Nate Combs.
“Our kids fought through it and got a win for our seniors, who I’m going to miss,” Jones said. “I can’t say enough about them.”
The Tigers are now 14-8 overall and 6-1 in the TEC. Hagerstown needs a loss by Northeastern on Friday to Union City in order to claim a share of the crown.
Tri Head Coach Cary Ellis Talks to his team during a timeout at Hagerstown on Feb. 23.
Ellis was pleased with his squad’s effort.
“It was a hard-nosed ball game,” he said. “I think we earned a lot of respect from Hagerstown.”
“We came out a little bit short,” Ellis continued. “They executed better at the end of the ball game than we did.”
Overall, the Titans are 6-15 and 1-6.
Tri started the contest with an early 4-0 advantage before the Tigers were able to answer to go on top 5-4 when Nate Combs scored at the 4:26 mark of the opening stanza.
The Tigers led 14-6 at the first stop after Bret Templin drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
In the second period, Hagerstown led by as much as 11 points before the Titans rallied to close the gap to 30-28 at the intermission.
“We fought back the rest of the ball game,” Ellis said. “It’s a process.”
“We’ve got a lot of young kids and we’re just trying to get better,” Ellis added. “We’re doing a lot of things really well, we’ve just got to get over that hump.”
After Hagerstown scored the first six points of the third quarter, the Titans rallied to within two points four times in the second half.
The Tigers always seemed to have answer with a score to prevent the Titans from getting closer than two points.
“We’ve got those guys who can do that,” Jones said of his team’s ability to stay in front on Tuesday. “There were probably four or five possessions in the whole game where we had to have a basket and we got one.”
Isaiah Neal led the Tigers with 17 points and six rebounds. Combs finished with 14 points and Templin tossed in 10 points.
The Titans didn’t have a player in double figures as Eric Bilby led the way with nine points. Carson Cox added eight points, while Alex Melton, Nick Wilson and Austin Stroud all finished with seven points. Melton finished with a team-high eight rebounds.
Hagerstown won the JV game 34-32 with Cody Swimm leading the Tigers with 14 points.
Kyler Burchett led the Titans with 15 points.
Hagerstown ends its regular season on Friday at Eastern Hancock. Tri entertains Muncie Burris the same night in its regular season finale.
Box Score
TRI (6-15, 1-6) – Alex Melton 3 1-3 7, Carson Cox 4 0-2 8, David O’Neill 1 0-0 3, Kaleb Harrison 2 0-0 5, Masen Phelps 2 0-0 4, Nick Wilson 1 5-5 7, Austin Stroud 3 1-1 7, Eric Bilby 3 0-0 9, Seth Butler 0 0-0 0. Team – 19 7-11 50.
HAGERST0WN (14-8, 6-1) – Mason Stitt 3 3-4 9, Jared Andis 1 0-0 3, Bret Templin 4 1-3 10, Jordan Auker 0 0-0 0, Nate Combs 5 3-3 14, Jalen Oliver 0 1-2 1, Evan Hoover 2 0-0 4, Isaiah Neal 6 5-7 17, Trent Weiss 0 0-0 0. Team – 21 13-19 58.
Tri 6 28 38 50
Hagerstown 14 30 45 58
3-pointers – Tri 5 (Bilby 3, O’Neill 1, Harrison 1), Hagerstown 3 (Andis 1, Templin 1, Combs 1). Rebounds – Tri 35 (Melton 8), Hagerstown 33 (Hoover 6, Neal 6). Turnovers – Tri 17, Hagerstown 9. Fouls – Tri 22 , Hagerstown 16.