Arts & Sciences provided the largest comeback Tuesday night in the District 5-A boys’ basketball tournament championship game, but Grace Academy produced the rally that mattered most.
Brandon Herman made two free throws and had an assist as the second-seeded Golden Eagles scored the final six points to stun the top-seeded Patriots 59-56 at CSAS. The Patriots had taken a 56-53 lead on a Sharif Cobb 3-pointer with 1:42 remaining, which marked a 21-point swing from a 41-23 deficit CSAS faced midway through the third quarter.
“This feels really good,” Herman said after being named tournament MVP. “They beat us twice in the regular season, and both games we felt like we should have won. To come out and beat them in the most important one so far feels good.”
Grace (19-6) will host Signal Mountain on Saturday in Region 3-A quarterfinals, while CSAS (22-7) will host Lookout Valley. Before Tuesday, the Patriots had been undefeated in 2010.
“It was time,” CSAS coach Mark Dragoo said. “You don’t want to lose this game, but if you’re going to lose, you better lose now. That really shocked them tonight that they could lose, because they hadn’t lost in two months. We’re a young team, and hopefully they’ll learn.”