BY ANDREW FAISON/CONTRIBUTING WRITER

andrew.faison@tidewaternews.com

 

COURTLAND—Tidewater Academy senior Hunter Haywood netted seven of his 21 points during a double overtime to defeat Southampton Academy 62-52 in Virginia Commonwealth Conference play on Tuesday.

“That was one of the best high school games I’ve ever been a part of in my 20 years of coaching,” said TA Coach Walter Westbrook. “It was unfortunate that one of the teams had to loose; it was just that good of a game.”

TA led 22-21 at halftime. The teams were tied at 43 at the end of regulation play.

“We had our opportunities to win that game two or three times,” said SA Coach Jim Tribbett. “We just couldn’t capitalize when we needed to, as well we couldn’t catch breaks when we needed them.”

The Warriors improved to 6-3 in the VCC and 13-6 overall, while the Raiders fell to 3-6 in the conference and 8-6 overall.

“My hats off to (Coach Tribbett),” Westbrook said. “He kept us off balance changing defenses. Both teams played extremely hard. Everyone left everything they had on the floor.”

Additional leaders for the Warriors were senior Marqual Saunders with 14 points; juniors Reid Holdsworth and Elante Drew added 11 and 10 respectively.

“It was a really good win, we finished really strong, we just got better as the game went along,” Westbrook said.

Junior Cam Hines led the Raiders, netting a career-high 28 points. He also pulled down five rebounds. Junior Tonee Hill added 10 points and six rebounds.

SA went 8-for-8 from the free throw line.

“The team is doing good things over the long run of this season,” Tribbett said. “We just kinda ran out of gas there going into the second overtime. We used a lot of energy on running a half court trap defense.”

The Warriors will travel to Brunswick Academy at 7:30 p.m. today, Feb. 1, while the Raiders will host Alliance Christian at 7 today.