Top-ranked Rams topple Tigers
Published 5:14 pm Friday, February 20, 2015
DOTHAN– Greenville’s road to a championship came to a sudden end Wednesday night in the final round of the South Regional tournament as the Tigers lost to the top-ranked Faith Academy Rams 65-54.
The Tigers capitalized on a struggling Rams team early in the first quarter to take an early four-point lead.
But the Rams towering trio of Josh Hill (6 feet 4 inches), R.J. Mhoon (6 feet 5 inches) and Bien Harbin (6 feet 7 inches) slowly began to dominate the inside game to give Faith Academy a lead that the team would sustain for the remainder of the game.
But the Tigers refused to go away quietly as Tevin Burns, Zac Smith, Javarrius Cheatham and more unleashed a torrent of three-pointers in the third quarter to close the gap.
A breakaway dunk from Ra’heem Moore electrified the entire building and cut the lead to just three points.
Unfortunately for Greenville, foul trouble sent the Rams to the line early and often in the second half, and the Rams made the Tigers pay for the offense at the line by connecting on 26 of 29 free throws.
The Tigers’ troubles continued in the fourth despite a close deficit at the start of the quarter, as a 11-4 run stretched the lead to 12 points with just five minutes left on the clock.
Greenville finally found an offensive rhythm, but the Tigers’ defense struggled to seal the leaks inside to close the gap.
Burns continued with his hot hand behind the arc and made a particularly lengthy possession worth it with a 3 pointer, but a double-digit deficit and only a minute remaining on the clock were too much for the Tigers to overcome.
Burns was four of five from three-point range and added 20 points to the Tigers’ total.
Cheatham contributed 14 points.