CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cleveland closed its Holiday Classic high school basketball tournament Friday with two games that weren't decided until the fourth quarter - one much later than the other.
Meigs County's girls needed late-game heroics to nip Cleveland 71-69. Afterward, Cleveland's boys pulled away late for a 78-69 victory over the Meigs boys.
* Meigs girls 71, Cleveland 69: Considering the Lady Tigers scored 50 points before halftime, they probably didn't think then they would need rescuing at the end. But it took Alyson Crowder driving to the basket for the winning field goal with three seconds left to lift them to the win.
"We played zone (defense) most of the second half," Meigs coach Jason Powell said, acknowledging that his team had encountered some foul trouble in the first half. "They kind of chipped away, chipped away and it came down to that last-second shot."
Kaylie Moore led Meigs (11-3) with 19 points. She scored 11 and Jade Meadows had all eight of hers during the Lady Tigers' 27-point second quarter.
"We got some good looks and made some shots," said Powell, whose team was 3-0 in the tournament. "Overall we battled. I was very pleased."
Cassidy Kenny contributed 11 points for Meigs. Crowder and Kristy Crager scored 10 apiece.
Sofia Stamatiadis had four 3-point goals and 29 points for Cleveland (8-8), and Bailey Anderson added 18 points. They combined for all 19 of the Lady Raiders' points in the fourth quarter, when they outscored Meigs by 10.
* Cleveland boys 78, Meigs 69: The game was tied at 66 nearing the midway point of the fourth quarter, but in the remaining time the Tigers' only points came on Clint Oliver's 3-point basket from the left wing with 2:42 to play.
"We really focus on trying to get three or four stops in a row, and we were able to do that," Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said of his team's fourth-quarter success. "That helped us stretch the lead. We kind of controlled the game then."
The Blue Raiders' largest lead in the first half was 26-19. Yet Meigs (10-6) battled back and went up 41-37 before the score wound up 44-44 at halftime. Cleveland (14-2) scored the first seven points of the second half, but it took Norance Berry's 3-pointer at the 55-second mark to put the Blue Raiders ahead 60-57 at the end of three quarters.
The Tigers' 12-point fourth was their lowest-scoring quarter.
"Our shots just didn't go down," Meigs coach Sammy Perkinson said of the late-game fade. "We fell a little bit behind a few times, but all game long we'd always battled back. The start of the third quarter we didn't score the first four times we had the ball, but then we settled back in to what we had been doing, and the next thing you know we got it tied again."
K.K. Curry led Cleveland with 18 points, followed by Diontae Ware with 15. Deontae Davis added 14, including four 3s, and Mullek Bradford chipped in with 12.
The Tigers, who made 10 3-point shots, were led by Oliver's four and his 20 points. Brantley Baker and Cam Harris totaled 13 points each, Wriley Smith scored 12 and Jesse Rayl had 11.
"They're just so dangerous from 3," McCowan said. "They make you guard the entire floor. And they make it seem like it's 60 or 70 feet wide, instead of 50."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.