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Dec. 30—LEBANON — For many of Thursday night time’s title recreation of the Lebanon Vacation Event, little separated the host Tigers and New Palestine.
However when it got here right down to crunch time, the undefeated Dragons had just a bit an excessive amount of for the Tigers. New Palestine out-scored the Tigers 24-12 within the fourth quarter, and pulled away late to win the title 59-48.
“You need to give them credit score, when it got here right down to crunch time that they had the legs left and their physicality took over,” Lebanon head coach Albert Hendrix mentioned. “Our children performed exhausting and toughed it out till the ultimate couple minutes once they pulled away and I’m actually proud and pleased with the way in which our children performed tonight.”
Whereas the ultimate margin ending up being 11, it was a four-point recreation with 2:15 to go and had been back-and-forth recreation a lot of the second half.
Outdoors of a seven-point win over Western Boone, the Tigers (now 8-2) have not been in one other recreation settled by lower than 17 factors. Regardless of the loss, the Tigers can develop from being in a decent recreation with a high quality 4A program, Hendrix mentioned.
“This might be an amazing studying expertise for us if we reap the benefits of it,” Hendrix mentioned. “We are able to present them the movie and present them what the distinction was in the previous few minutes of the sport. We are going to be taught from it and get higher. We performed three good 4A groups on this tourney and that is what’s going to assist us shifting ahead.”
Down two factors on the half, the Tigers began off the third quarter properly to seize a lead.
A 3-pointer by Korbyn Sloggett put the Tigers up 32-29, and back-to-back baskets by Kaden Lark made it 36-29.
However the Tigers allowed the Dragons again within the recreation, failing to attain on their ultimate 5 possessions of the half with three missed pictures, a turnover and two missed free throws.
The 2 groups went back-and-forth early within the fourth quarter, with seven lead modifications within the first 4 minutes.
A 3-point play from Jack Ferrell put the Tigers up 43-42, however New Palestine countered with a 7-0 spurt as Lebanon missed its subsequent 4 pictures.
Two Landon Fouts free throws obtained Lebanon inside 49-45 with 2:15 to go and the Tigers had possession, however missed a front-end of a 1-and-1 and obtained no nearer than 5 from there.
“We missed some simple pictures when the sport was shut, and even after we had the lead within the third quarter,” Hendrix mentioned. “Then we go 8-of-15 from the road and missed a pair front-ends of 1-and-1s — and we’ve got to capitalize there. We are going to get higher at these issues. We have now a troublesome seven-game stretch right here towards some actually good groups.”
Lark led the Tigers with 16 factors, with Ferrell having 13 factors and 9 rebounds.
Korbyn Sloggett added 9.
The Tigers held New Palestine go 39% taking pictures and eight% from behind the arc, however obtained out-rebounded 39-25 and despatched the Dragons to the road 28 instances (they hit 20).
Hendrix mentioned the Dragons physicality inside was a distinction as they grabbed 14 offensive rebounds.
“It was a physicality factor there,” Hendrix mentioned. “We have now Jack down low who is barely a sophomore so he is not bodily able to battle towards 4A veteran put up gamers and Landon Fouts battles and works exhausting, nevertheless it is not the identical as a 4A post-player.”
Regardless of the loss, the Tigers head into the brand new yr with an 8-2 file and are ranked within the top-10 in Class 3A.
Hendrix mentioned there are numerous positives to remove from their performances within the event.
“There isn’t a doubt about it, that I am happy with our children,” Hendrix mentioned. “They performed their hearts out in all three video games. Three video games in two days is hard. And we had the late recreation final night time, then performed at midday and had one other fast turnaround. We performed properly to get to the title recreation and our children laid all of it on the road tonight, we simply could not get it carried out.”
Will Willems is the Sports activities Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Comply with him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
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