Boyd-Buchanan’s Colby Arendale (20) fouls Ooltewah’s Jaymcal Johnson (1).Boyd-Buchanan didn’t have it all the way Friday in its boys’ semifinal in the Times Free Press Best of Preps basketball tournament. The Buccaneers just wouldn’t go away.
Trailing Ooltewah most of the game, the Bucs hung around enough to make a late second-half push, and it was some kind of push that carried them past the Owls, 59-51.
Boyd-Buchanan (12-0) plays Tyner for the boys’ championship tonight at 8:30. Ooltewah (7-4) faces Notre Dame in the third-place game at 5:30.
The Bucs never led in the first half. And when Q.D. Cox hit a deep 3-point shot from the left wing at the halftime horn to make it 27-27, it marked only the second time the game was tied (the other was at 4).
“We had a real slow start,” Boyd-Buchanan coach Cole Rose said. “Give them a lot of credit. They hit some shots with a pretty high degree of difficulty. But our kids have a lot of faith in what we’re doing. They didn’t hang their heads because what we were doing was not working, and everything came out well in the end.”