Linville's free throws help Crestview sink Hoboes
LAUREL HILL – Crestview’s Tristin Linville hit eight-consecutive free throws in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs held off Laurel Hill to take a 69-57 win in boys basketball Thursday night.
Crestview (13-11) used a smothering defense to force 16 Hobo turnovers in the first half as the Bulldogs built what seemed to be a commanding 39-25 lead at the intermission.
But anyone counting out the home-standing Hoboes (15-8) on LHS Senior Night was in for a surprise.
Issaic Williams scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the third quarter for the Hoboes and the Bulldog offense was asleep on the court scoring just six points as Laurel Hill clawed its way back into the game.
“We came out in the start of the third quarter and thought it was over with,” Bulldog coach Keith White. “If we can’t score baskets we can’t get in our press to force the turnovers and score.
“They got some easy buckets and got some momentum going.”
With 30 seconds left in the quarter Williams drove the lane for a basket and was fouled. He made the free throw to finish off the 3-point play pulling Laurel Hill to within a point of Crestview with the score 45-44.
Back-to-back 3-point baskets by Antryun Coleman and Shykeem Jackson midway through the fourth quarter pushed the Bulldog led back to eight points and marked the end of the Laurel Hill comeback attempt.
Jackson’s 3-pointer, his second of the night, gave him a team-best 16 points. He was only Bulldog to score in double figures.
Ethan Jackson and Travon Calloway tried to answer for the Hoboes down the stretch with Jackson scoring four of his 14 points in the fourth quarter and Calloway scoring five of his seven points in the closing minutes.
With three minutes left in the game, and leading by six eight points, White pulled his offense out to beyond the 3-point arch to run time off the clock.
Laurel Hill was forced to foul in hopes that the Bulldogs would miss their free throws. The strategy seemed to work when Crestview missed the first three attempts on the front end of the one-and-one. But the Bulldogs crabbed the rebounds and made sure Linville had the ball in his hands at the stripe to carry them the rest of the way for the win.
“Our focus was to keep our turnovers down in the second half and to keep them down to five or six, and at the same time attack the basket when they were attacking us defensively,” Laurel Hill coach Kent Zessin said. “We made some adjustments on attacking the press and it worked out well.
“We were pecking away at it and cut it to one. But they hit the two threes there in the fourth quarter and then they hit the free throws in the end.”
