Tyner boys’ basketball coach E’Jay Ward clapped his hands repeatedly near the end of the third quarter, celebrating after sophomore guard Rodney Henderson picked Brainerd’s pocket on his way to a left-handed slam.
The dunk may have been the exclamation point on that play, but it was set up by lockdown defense — and that was the story of the second half for the Rams.
Tyner overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to beat the Panthers 48-46 in the Best of Preps tournament’s third-place game Friday at Chattanooga State.
“Our assistant coach Dontay Hampton keeps talking to our boys about having single-digit quarters on defense. That made the difference, holding Brainerd to five points in the third quarter,” said Ward, whose team trailed 31-17 at halftime. “When we play defense, we have enough offensive firepower to figure things out.
“But we must pride ourselves on getting stops. And we did that tonight.”
A big defensive sequence for Tyner (8-3) came with just more than a minute left to play, when Henderson and Keelan Jackson each rejected shots on the same Panthers possession to maintain a three-point lead. Henderson finished with four steals and scored 15 of his 17 points after halftime.
Tyner senior guard Nehemiah Bloodsaw helped lead the comeback with 16 of his 19 points in the second half.
Brainerd (9-8) was led by Trea Shaw, who scored all of his 14 points in the first half.
East Hamilton 66, Howard 53: Senior guard Kaden Herman drew a foul on his way to tough left-handed finish, then made the free throw to cap a 10-0 run for the Hurricanes to build a 54-43 lead with 5:06 left in the fifth-place game.
East Hamilton (10-6) scored 22 points in the fourth quarter as Juan Bullard and Herman led the way to victory with 17 points apiece. Junior point guard Ashton Munson scored 15 points, including a three-point play in the fourth, and he followed that with an assist to Zachariah Laboo for a dunk and a spectacular behind-the-back assist to Bullard.
Howard’s NyQuise Thomas scored a game-high 20 points, with most of that from the field as he made nine baskets, and Jacob Sapps connected on a trio of 3-pointers for the Hustlin’ Tigers.
East Hamilton sophomore Adarius Brewster was solid in the first half with seven points.
LFO 64, Signal Mountain 57: Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe (7-7) secured seventh place by surviving the Eagles’ furious comeback attempt, which was led by sophomore guard Chris Kennedy as he scored 29 of his career-high 33 points in the second half.
Kennedy made five of his eight 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, when LFO’s 14-point lead was cut to four with 1:26 remaining, but the Warriors’ Bryce Brock and Jarrett Mitchell responded by driving to the hoop for big buckets late in the game.
Brock and Mitchell scored 25 of their 29 combined points after the break, while Jayden Dover provided stellar defense and passes and scored 11 points, as did Brent Bowman.
Kennedy was on fire down the stretch, with Signal Mountain’s star shooter scoring 19 points in the final period.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.