No matter how chilly temperatures were outside Thursday night, they couldn’t have been any colder than the Howard Hustlin’ Tigers’ shooting spell in the late stages of the boys’ Region 3-AA championship game at East Hamilton.
That coupled with some timely free-throw shooting by Tyner enabled the Rams to beat Howard 55-51 and claim the high school basketball tournament title.
As a reward, Tyner (21-6) will host York Institue in one of Monday’s state sectionals at 7 p.m. Howard (25-4) will play at Region 4 champion Livingston Academy at 8 EST.
The span that doomed the Hustlin’ Tigers began right after Quincy Jones, who led them with 15 points, scored on a drive from the right side that pulled them within two points with 4:59 to play. They did not score again until 1:20 remained when Chris Deloney made a basket and free throw.
In between, Reggie Gilmore made two field goals from in close and the Rams were also perfect from the free-throw line on their three one-and-bonus opportunities. The lead was 50-38 before Deloney’s three-point play.