Barbourville managed claimed a hard fought 66-57 win over Williamsburg during Saturday’s Pride of the Mountains Basketball Showcase.
These two teams could face-off again during the 13th Region All ‘A’ Classic Tournament in January but for now, the Tigers have bragging rights.
The win improved Chris Taylor’s squad to 5-2 while the Yellow Jackets lost their third straight, falling to 4-3.
Travis Scott continued his impressive play, scoring 19 points for Barbourville while hitting 9-of-10 shot attempts from the free-throw line while Ethan Smith added 18 points. Jake Lundy scored 11 points while Ty Clark, and Matt Warren scored six points apiece.
Ryder Akins led Williamsburg with 14 points while Henry Bowling, and Jerrod Roark each scored 12 points apiece. Andrew Smith finished with 10 points.
“Tough day for us, collectively,” Williamsburg coach Anthony Hibbard said. “We have to give a lot of credit to Coach Taylor and his team. We never found any consistency or flow offensively, and we found ourselves out of sync the entire night. We were lacking in a lot of areas tonight. However, we cannot let today’s outcome sway our mentality. We tell our guys, ‘When things go bad, we work hard. When things go good, we work hard.’ This week was a tough one for us, but one we can definitely learn from.”
The Yellow Jackets trailed, 31-23, at halftime before trying to rally in the second half.
Barbourville took a 46-37 lead entering the fourth quarter, and held on to the win by making 12-of-16 attempts from the free-throw line down the stretch.
The Tigers will participate in the Arby’s Classic beginning Monday while Williamsburg will travel to play Lee County on Wednesday.
