Warriors hold on to clip Pioneers
SPARTA — The Pioneers did everything they had to do to claw their way back into position for their first district win Tuesday night.
But when the game was on the line, the ball refused to bounce Warren County’s way — twice.
Fighting from a 13-point deficit in the second half to pull within a basket of their hosts from White County, the Pioneers couldn’t put the finishing touches on their comeback, and fell to the Warriors by a 62-58 final.
With the loss, Warren County fell to 7-12 overall and remains winless in District 7-AAA play at 0-9, while the Warriors improved to 11-10 overall and completed a season sweep of the Pioneers, improving to 2-7 in the league standings.
Down 26-28 at halftime, the Pioneers trailed by a 50-39 margin by the end of the third, but began chipping away at the Warrior lead in the game’s final period.
A 6-0 run, capped by a pair of Reese Bishop free throws, brought the Pioneers within a basket (54-52) at the 2:10 mark, but Seth England came through with both ends of a one-and-one with 26 seconds to play, pulling the Warriors ahead by four at 60-56.
A tie ball went to the Warriors, forcing Warren County to foul in the hopes of rebounding a missed free throw and converting on their end of the court.
Conversely, White County’s strategy in the game’s waning seconds was to make a minimal effort to rebound any missed foul shots, and avoid sending the Pioneers to the line as time wound down.
With 16 seconds to play the Warriors’ Daniel Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one, but the rebound found its way into the hands of Adam Drake, who was the only Warrior on the lane when Johnson went to the line.
The Pioneers were forced to foul again, and this time sent Torey Hess to the charity stripe with 11 ticks remaining. Hess missed both his shots, but the four Pioneers flanking the lane were again unable to pull down the rebound, which again was recovered by Drake.
With time continuing to run down, Drake drew the foul himself, and sank a pair of freebies to put the Warriors on top 62-56. Bishop drove the length of the floor for the game’s final layup, but it was too little and too late as White County celebrated its first home district win in the last four seasons.
Bishop was a one-man army for the Pioneers, scoring 18 of his game-high 27 points in the first half. Jeremiah Hodges, who made his first varsity start due to an illness to Kyle Thompson, added 11 points, while Brandon Adcock had eight points. Brooks Majors added a pair of 3-pointers, while Josh Nunley had four points and Todd Gilley had two.
England’s 15 points led White County, while John Gribble had 12 and Drake finished with 11. Ryan Qualls had 10, Hess scored seven, Daniels netted five and Daniel Johnson scored two points.
The Pioneers’ search for their first district victory continues tonight, when they take on the Oakland Patriots at the Charlie Dalton Gym. Oakland enters tonight’s game fresh off an 80-55 win over Riverdale, and will be going for a sweep of the Pioneers, who fell 58-53 when the two teams met in Murfreesboro in December.