Hixson outscored Red Bank by 14 points in the second half of their District 6-AA quarterfinal basketball game Thursday night.
The problem for the Wildcats was the first 16 minutes.
Host Red Bank blitzed Hixson from the start, pouring in 29 first-period points on the way to an 82-66 win. The Lions (16-11) will face regular-season champion Central in Saturday’s semifinals at Brainerd, starting at 7:30.
“We got after it early,” said Red Bank coach Nick Fike, whose team seemingly was on a constant fastbreak at the beginning. “The guys played really well defensively, and they played hungry. I told them you have to have three things come the postseason: hustle, heart and hunger. They did all three things in the first half.”
Hixson caught the Lions’ attention in the first three minutes, getting out to a 9-4 lead, but the next 15 minutes was all Red Bank. The hosts’ big three of Malik McConnell, Kolbi Suttles and Will Davis combined for 36 points in the opening half, many on fastbreak layups.
During a 25-6 run to close the opening period, Red Bank scored 20 of the points on layups. Its aggressive trapping defense led to seven early Hixson turnovers, and each turned into a layup on the other end. Suttles had seven points, McConnell eight points and three assists and Davis four points and three steals during the early dominating run.
“We wanted to come out and start on fire,” said McConnell, who led the Lions with 23 points. “Coach fired us up in the locker room. He kept saying all week, ‘Win or go home; win or go home.’ We had to come out and send a message tonight.”
The Red Bank express picked up steam in the second period, opening with a 12-3 run to expand the lead to 22. With McConnell getting easy assists and Davis bullying his way inside for bunnies, the lead grew to 49-21 by halftime.
Fike was pleased with his team’s passing, especially his dynamic point guard’s performance.
“We’ve been working with Malik to trust his teammates,” he said. “He has a good supporting cast. Tonight they were doubling him quite a bit, and he saw where they were coming from and did a great job hitting the open guy. The whole team played very unselfishly tonight, and it’s a nice thing to see at this time of season.”
Hixson, after falling behind by 31 early in the second half, never quit and used a strong half from Braven Horton (19 points) and hustling defense to earn the crowd’s respect.
Suttles had 19 points, Davis 15 and Caleb Tate 11 for Red Bank, while Keyshun Bradley had 12 and Jahvon Beard and Terry Moorer 10 each for the Wildcats, whose season ended at 9-16.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22