By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
SPRINGVILLE – Cross-town rivals Springville and Moody fought back and forth for three quarters before Ty Henderson and the Tigers pulled away in the fourth quarter to get the 14-point win and come one step closer to winning the region.
“I thought we played hard. I challenged them before the game to guard and play defense and I thought they played hard throughout the game,” said Springville Coach Brandon Easterwood.
The first quarter started well for Springville as they jumped out to an 11-3 lead. In the blink of an eye, the Blue Devils stormed back with 7 unanswered points to tie it at 11. The teams would trade scores before the quarter ended in a 13-13 tie. For Moody, Kolby Seymour led with 6 points while Springville’s Collin Lockhart led the Tigers with 4.
Springville would create some distance in the second quarter, putting up 16 points to Moody’s 11. The Tigers would be led by Lockhart who had 4 more points on the night. Moody’s Caden Helms would lead the Blue Devils with 6. Springville would take a 29-24 lead into halftime.
Moody came out firing in the third quarter, outscoring Springville 17-15 and keeping it within reach. The Blue Devils were led in the third by Davion Dozier with 5 points. Springville was led by Ty Harrison, who was just getting warmed up, with 6 points. 44-41 Tigers heading into the final quarter of the game.
This is when Springville turned up the heat. They held Moody to 14 points on the quarter, but they burned up the nets on the offensive side of the ball, scoring 23 as the Tiger crowd was rocking. The afore-mentioned Harrison put up 9 of those points in the quarter for Springville while Seymour led the Blue Devils with 5. The final would be 70-56, Tigers.
Moody was led on the night by Koby Seymour with 17 points followed by Davion Dozier with 12 and Carson Dillashaw with 11.
“We battled. Shots weren’t going down,” said Moody coach Chad Bates. “We didn’t really finish around the basket. 14 for them (Brodie Frederick) did a good job affecting our shots. We’ve just got to do a better job of executing next time we play them.”
Springville was led by Ty Harrison with 17 points. Collin Lockhart followed with 14 while Brodie Frederick added 11 and Ayden Walton put up 10.
“We had to make some adjustments,” said Coach Easterwood. “I thought our effort was really good. We eliminated the three pointer for them in the fourth. They didn’t make any in the second half. I thought that was important. We had some trouble rebounding and keeping them off the boards. I thought we made some free throws and some big shots. Ty (Harrison) and Ayden (Walton) hit some big threes. We were able to make shots when we needed to. Some shots we didn’t make in the first half we did make in the second.”
Moody will move on to host St. Clair County on Friday night. Springville will head to Leeds where a win will earn the Tigers the area championship.