Rockwood Wins Battle of Tigers for District 3-1A Third Place
By Terry Futrell
It was an epic jungle battle of Tigers as Sunbright and Rockwood faced off in the District 3-1A Consolation Game. A movie script writer could not have created a more exciting script, complete with a heroic 3-point shot by Heyden Lee in the last seconds of the game to give the Rockwood Tigers a come-from-behind 61-59 victory over the Sunbright Tigers for third place in the district tournament.
The game looked like it might be a blowout as Sunbright took an early 10-0 lead. Rockwood finally got on the board with two points at 4:17 of the first quarter. True to the character of their namesake mascot, the Rockwood Tigers fought back to within one point, 12-11, at the end of the first period.
Rockwood took the lead from Sunbright at 7:34 of the second quarter. Point-by-point, Rockwood slowly increased their lead to 24-19 at 1:40 to go in the first half. Sunbright fought back and cut the Rockwood lead to two, 24-22, as the teams went to the locker room for intermission.
Sunbright regained the lead 27-26 at 6:26 of the third quarter. Four times, Sunbright increased its lead to five points in the third quarter, only to see Rockwood fight back and cut Sunbright’s lead each time. Sunbright closed out the third quarter with a 42-39 lead over Rockwood.
Sunbright increased its lead to seven, 48-41 just over a minute into the fourth quarter. At this point, it appeared that Sunbright might pull away in the waning minutes of the game. Sunbright’s lead increased to eight, 50-42, with 6:04 remaining in the game. Rockwood chipped away at Sunbright’s lead, cutting it to three points with 4:46 remaining. Twice more, Sunbright increased its lead, only to see Rockwood close the gap to two points, 58-56, with 41 seconds remaining.
With a two point lead and the ball, with a double-bonus in effect, Sunbright chose to shoot the ball and missed, with Rockwood getting the rebound. Moving quickly down the court, Rockwood’s Heyden Lee found himself open just long enough to fire up a 3-point shot that swished the net, giving Rockwood a 59-58 lead with 39 seconds remaining.
Sunbright was unable to score, and Rockwood connected on two free throws to increase the lead to 61-58. Rockwood fouled Sunbright’s John Freels with 2.9 seconds remaining. Freels made the first free throw and missed the second, hoping for a 2-point put back to tie the game. It was not to be, as the final buzzer sounded with Rockwood taking a 61-59 victory in the battle of the Tigers for third place in District 3-1A.
Sunbright was led by Wes Bohanan with 18 points, Hunter Bunch with 17 points, and John Freels with 14 points. Heyden Lee scored 17 points for Rockwood, while Brett Sands added 15 points, Tahj Bazel scored 13 points, and Nate Brackett contributed 12 points.
Rockwood travels to Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences for regional play on Saturday, and Sunbright plays at Tellico Plains.
