By Al Muskewitz
Handley nips Anniston at the buzzer in OT to win area title or The Mystery of the Phantom 2
ROANOKE – To be the best you have to beat the best and it took two incredible shots at the end of regulation and overtime for Handley to beat the reigning best in its classification Friday night – for the second time that way this year.
Devontae Higgins hit a 3-pointer from the right wing at the end of regulation to tie the game and tournament MVP Jay Haynes hit a 15-footer on the right side of the foul line at the buzzer of overtime as the Tigers crushed Anniston’s heart 69-68 for the Class 4A Area 9 tournament championship.
It’s the second time this year the Tigers have taken down the Bulldogs like that. Earlier in the season they came to Anniston and beat the Bulldogs in double overtime at the buzzer.
“At the end of regulation that kid just made a shot,” Anniston coach Torry Brown said. “In overtime they got it out of bounds in one of those funny spots on the court, sort of in the corner, and the guy just made another shot.
“They’re definitely heart-breaking shots, but you have to look at it on the flip side. We had one in the (state) championship game (last year) like that that they missed. The basketball gods were with us that day and they were with Handley tonight.”
The saving grace for the Bulldogs is they still get to play another day. Because the loss took place in the area tournament finals, they will travel to the winner of Saturday’s Jacksonville-Etowah game for their sub-region round game. Handley will host the Jacksonville-Etowah loser.
Any close game is bound to have controversy and this one certainly did.
Anniston led the entire second half. The Bulldogs led by 11 with seven minutes left in regulation and by four with 19 seconds left.
Early in the fourth quarter Cannon Kyles cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 48-39, then during a timeout with 6:13 left there was a discussion at the scorer’s table and the lead was reduced once more, the score adjusted to 48-41.
Reporters covering the game couldn’t find the points and play-by-play of the game at that point did not show a miscalculation of the score. The official home scorebook credits Handley’s Rondai Banks with eight points in the quarter on four field goals but the Anniston scorebook and reporters’ notes show only six and two missed free throws at the start of the fourth quarter.
“It’s a four-point swing,” Brown said. “We were up nine and all of sudden they got two foul shots or supposedly hit two foul shots to trim it to seven, but from my understanding that wasn’t the case. I’m going to try to find it on the network and see if I can see it.
“I think it was a missed call on the refs. We had a veteran crew so you would think they would have gotten together and figured it out, but they said they had to go with the home book so there was nothing we could do at that point.
“I think we got the bad end of the stick on that one. That’s something you’ve got to get right; there’s no way around it and it was something they missed. It is what it is. We’ll look at it, but you can’t reverse it now. It’ll send it in, but they’re not going to anything. It’s a moot point.”
The Bulldogs helped Handley back into the game by missing five of seven free throws plus a lane violation in the final two minutes of regulation. Antonio Kite’s put-back gave them a four-point lead with 19 seconds left and he made a free throw with six seconds left to put them up three before Higgins hit his game-tying 3.
Kite’s runner with 30 seconds left in overtime gave Anniston its last lead at 68-67. Troy Hall appeared to save the Bulldogs when he blocked Maurice Cameron twice on the baseline with six seconds left, but the Tigers retained possession.
Handley inbounded but called time to avoid getting trapped in the corner. Now, the Tigers had to inbounds from the corner with three seconds left. They got it into Rondai Banks who got it to Haynes who just got his shot off right before the buzzer and it dropped.
“Anniston didn’t play like that the first two times we played; Anniston tonight decided they wanted to win the area championship and it was ultimately up to us if we were going to be up to the task or not,” Handley coach Larry Strain said. “We beat them those two times before and we wouldn’t have probably if they played up to what they played tonight.
“The whole game was us being behind, so we were playing catch-up the whole way. I felt like we were a little intimidated by them at times … but you could kind of see the air come back in our sails the closer it got to the end of the game. Devontae, who is probably my best shooter, takes the 3 over there and I know it’s got a chance when he shoots the ball. That was huge. The play we drew up right there (in overtime) didn’t go the way it went. It was them reacting and not giving up is what it boiled down to.”
Banks led Handley with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Haynes finished with 13, all in the second half with nine in the fourth quarter and overtime. Kite led all scorers with 27 points.
The game marked the return of Anniston guard Mark Toyer. He had been out since injuring his knee in the season-opener at Spain Park and Brown said “he helped us a lot defensively” in this game. Of Toyer’s play in general Brown said, “all things considered, he did a good job.”
Randolph Leader sports editor Tim Altork contributed to this report.
CLASS 4A AREA 9
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Jaquan Anderson, Munford
Conner Morgan, Munford
Walker Osteen, White Plains
Josh Wheeler, White Plains
Tadyn Jones, Anniston
Antonio Kite, Anniston
Troy Hall, Anniston
Jay Haynes, Handley (MVP)
Cannon Kyles, Handley
Rondai Banks, Handley [*** read more]
