Gate City falls at buzzer, Dobyns-Bennett advances to Alpha semifinals

KINGSPORT — The uglier the better for Gate City basketball. It was nearly enough for the Blue Devils to advance to winner's bracket semifinals in the 5th annual Alpha Invitational. "I told the kids in the locker room that nobody, not their parents, not anybody here expected us to be in the running, nobody did," Gate City head coach Chris Fugate said. "You look out there, they start 6-5, 6-6, 6-7, they start the game with two dunks and we are down four and it looks like it is going to be roll. "That is a testament to these kids' heart. They have got fight in them and they don't know how to quit." They certainly didn't in this one, as Antwane Daniels connected on a driving layup with five seconds left to lift Auburn (AL) to a hard-fought 56-54 Alpha Invitational opening around victory over Gate City on Thursday evening at the Buck Van Huss Dome. "This is our fourth game. The biggest thing I have told these kids is they have the opportunity to be one the best teams in Gate City history and that is a big statement, but that is how much I think of these kids," Fugate said. "The effort they gave tonight, I couldn't be more proud of them." Gate City will the face Dorman (SC) at 4:30 p.m., while the Tigers will meet Belen Jesuit at 8:30 p.m. "I am just excited that we are able to compete in this tournament, to have this kind of competition, trying to prepare us for when we go play regionals," Auburn head coach Chris Brandt said. "It is a huge benefit, we get to see different ways people play, we see different ways people call games and as a team we have got to adjust to anything. "Hopefully by coming here it is going to be a huge benefit for us on down the line." There was concern about the score at the end of the game. Gate City had appeared to tie the score at 29 in the third quarter, but scoreboard didn't reflect it. The final boxscore distributed to the media after the game had it tied at 54. "We tied the game on a 3 and it went to 29-29 and and I looked up and it was 29-28," Fugate said. "I am going to tell them, they are going to tell us what the score is tomorrow." Gate City, which had three players in double figures, including Ollie Carpenter (19 points), Zayne Reed (15 points, four assists) and Parker Jenkins (10 points, 10 rebounds), tied the score in the fourth quarter four times, including at 54 on a 3-pointer by Zayne Reed with 11.4 seconds left on the clock. "With the personnel that we have this year, the uglier the game the better it gets for us," Carpenter said. "Just playing scrappy is definitely going to benefit us this year…I think we play teams like that and show how tough we are and how scrappy we have got to play." Auburn called a timeout and got the ball to Antwane Daniels, the son of former Auburn and NBA veteran Marquis Daniels, who got the pass from Tre Ross, drove the basket and made the layup to put the Tigers on top to stay. "We drew up a play, but they ended up switching out their defense so we had to switch what we were going into," said Daniels, who also had nine rebounds and four assists. "Appreciate my buddy, Tre Ross, giving me a look and just me going downhill and attacking the goal." Gate City still had a chance, with Carpenter driving the ball to the bucket, but his contested layup missed its mark as the buzzer sounded. "I hate moral victories, but I told the kids tonight I didn't care what the score was, I wanted to get better," Fugate said. "We come over here to get better and we got better tonight. Now we have to carry that the rest of the season with the people that we play." Trindon Manior added 10 points and five assists for Auburn, while Caleb Brooks had three of the Tigers' eight 3s against the Blue Devils, who will do whatever it takes to win games. "So many people think a basketball game is supposed to be played one way and the only way it is supposed to be played what the end of the score is. I have got 10 football kids on this team. We are not real big, but we are pretty dang tough," Fugate said. "We have always been built around football kids. "I have had people say that was an ugly game, it don't matter as long as what the score is in the book. You can play it pretty if you want to. We could have played them pretty and they would have beat us by 35 or 40, but it is all about who wins and loses and what the score is." DOBYNS-BENNETT 51, BELL COUNTY (KY) 43 A 15-0 run midway through the second quarter and into the third helped Dobyns-Bennett build a lead and then the Indians hung on to defeat the Bobcats and advance to the semifinals on Friday against Gray Collegiate at 7 p.m. "I thought we beat a really, really good basketball team," Dobyns-Bennett head coach Chris Poore said. "Scouting for them was almost a nightmare. It really worried me, I know they are well-coached, they are a disciplined team, a physical team and one that I quite honestly thought we might struggle with. "While it wasn't pretty all the time I thought our guys were resilient, they battled and ultimately they found a way. I am really, really proud of this, I thought it was a really good win for us." Henry Hill led Dobyns-Bennett's balanced attack with a trio of 3s and 14 points, while T.J. Maxwell and Carter Atwood scored nine points apiece for the Indians, which forced 18 turnovers, overcoming a 16-10 second quarter deficit to go on a 15-0 run to build the margin to 25-16. Levi Webb had five rebounds and three blocked shots for the Indians. "We came up with 12 stops in a row, and a lot of that was just discipline," Poore said. "Some of that happened off of turnovers, but a lot of that was sitting down and guarding and cleaning up the glass. They were big, they had big guys in there, physical guards. "We had to earn that tonight and I was proud of our guys for stepping up in that stretch because that is what it is going to come down to at the end of the season." Bell County not only struggled with turnovers, but also struggled to shoot the ball, including 9-for-19 from the free throw line. The Bobcats were led by Blake Burnett, who had 21 of their 43 points. Cayden Huff contributed 11 rebounds and Braxton Ferguson dished out four assists. "We didn't play very well, a lot of that had to do with Dobyns-Bennett," said Bell County head coach Brad Sizemore, whose Bobcats will face Tullahoma on Friday at 3 p.m. "They are a really nice team, I thought their length and pressure and physicality bothered us, but we adjusted at times, settled in and I was proud of how we made a run at the end of the game, got back in it with two minutes to go and just had a few bad plays." Dobyns-Bennett will look to advance to the Alpha Invitational finals with a win on Friday, a game that begins at 7 p.m., which follows a three-point and slam dunk competition that are slated for 6 p.m. "To get deep in the postseason you have got to execute with teams with discipline that don't turn it over and defend and they do all those things," Poore said. "They execute extremely well, they run a lot of great stuff. They are well-coached, you can tell so that was a good test for us." GRAY COLLEGIATE (SC) 70, TULLAHOMA (TN) 36 Levi Ball was on the ball in this one, contributing 28 points, seven rebounds, six steals and two assists to lead the War Eagles to a rout of the defending Class AAA state runnerup Wildcats. Gray Collegiate, located in Columbia, S.C., jumped out to a 23-2 first quarter lead and cruised to the second round, where the War Eagles will face Dobyns-Bennett in the semifinals on Friday at 7 p.m. Tullahoma, which was outscored 47-34 after the first period, was paced by Payton Behrendorff with eight points and seven boards, seven points from Jackson Knight and six points and seven boards by Jayden Thompson. The Wildcats, which had 27 turnovers, will face on Bell County on Friday at 3 p.m. Jayden Rowe added eight points and eight rebounds for Gray Collegiate, while Ricky Littlejohn added eights points and Cam Arthur dished out five assists. BELEN JESUIT (FL) 53, DORMAN (SC) 35 There will be a new Alpha Invitational champion after defending champ Dorman was dispatched by the visitors from Miami. Lucas Diaz scored 17 points and Orlando Roche added 12 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists as Belen Jesuit jumped out to a 15-2 first quarter lead and cruised to Friday's semifinals against Auburn at 8:30 p.m. Dorman, which became the third defending champion to return to the Alpha Invitational in the five years of the event, turned the ball over 17 times and managed to hit just 3-of-20 shots from 3-point range. Will Bush tallied 12 points and seven rebounds for the Cavaliers, which will face Gate City on Friday at 4:30 p.m.