PIEDMONT – All season long, the Class 1A, No. 2 Cedar Bluff Tigers have played in tight basketball games. Five of their previous seven games had been decided by six points or less.

It’s enough to give head coach Joe Carpenter an ulcer, and Friday night’s game at Class 3A, No. 3 Piedmont was no different.

By making several key baskets and free throws down the stretch, the Tigers were able to hold off the Bulldogs 77-73 to run their record to 8-0. Piedmont dropped to 6-1.

Tyric Scales led the way for the Tigers with 32 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block, but it was the play of Marcus Reese at the point guard position that helped the others surrounding him.

Reese finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals and a block. DeAngelo Hardy had 13 points, five boards and a steal. Nick Reed finished with nine points, five boards and a steal.

“It’s a tremendous deal on our part to come here and survive in this type of environment and come out with a win,” Carpenter said. “It could have very easily went the other way.

“Marcus did an outstanding job. He did the best job running point guard (this season), and we’re extremely proud of him. We demanded that of him, and he answered. I’m just pleased with the play of our whole team. We were mentally focused tonight. If we can continue to build off of this, then we’ll be all right. What we don’t want to do is take a step back.”

Piedmont held a 61-57 lead with 6:35 left in the fourth quarter off a jumper by Tay Holloway. It would be almost another four minutes before the Bulldogs would score another point. In that span of time, Cedar Bluff was able to go on an 11-0 run to take a 68-61 advantage.

The Bulldogs played catch-up the rest of the way and cut the Tiger lead to 71-68 off another bucket by Holloway with 1:10 remaining, but a big 3-point play by Reed with 26.3 seconds left pushed Cedar Bluff’s lead back out to seven at 75-68 and iced the game.

“All of Coach (Tommy) Lewis’ teams shoot well, and I was concerned of the fact we left them open a couple of times,” Carpenter said. “They just happened not to hit those shots. It would have been a lot different situation probably than it ended up being. They had looks, but we’ve got to get out and cover them. Fortunately for us, they didn’t fall, but they had enough looks at the basket where it could have been detrimental to the outcome of the game.”

A big difference in the game was free-throw shooting. The Tigers connected on 17 of their 23 shots from the line. Piedmont was 10 of 24.

“We missed a couple of shots under the basket, and we just didn’t convert free throws,” Lewis said. “There were trips when we went down ahead and then went one or two behind. You miss 12 or 13 free throws and the other team doesn’t … they just shot free throws well and we didn’t.

“If there was one thing, that was it. You just hit half of what you missed, you’re still ahead.”

Matt Craig led Piedmont with 26 points, including five 3-pointers. He also had six steals, four rebounds and two assists.

Christian Cantrell added 14 points, eight assists, four boards and two steals. Holloway had 12 points. Jamaal Johnson came away with 11 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and two assists. Terrick Spear finished with seven points and seven rebounds.

Cedar Bluff led 17-15 at the end of the first quarter. Piedmont came back to take a 37-33 lead at the break and held a 59-57 advantage at the end of the third quarter before Cedar Bluff made its run.

“The big thing is to see how we’ll react (to a loss),” Lewis said. “Cedar Bluff came to win a big ball game. I think we realized halfway through we were in a big ball game, and it might have made us play a little differently, a little off. You’ve got to learn from those things.”

Girls

Piedmont 58, Cedar Bluff 42 – Piedmont point guard Raven Prater led all scorers with 26 points in a 58-42 victory over Cedar Bluff Friday night.

The win improved Piedmont’s record to 5-5. Cedar Bluff dropped to 3-5.

Brea Dixon added eight points, 12 rebounds and six steals for the Lady Bulldogs. Breanna Thompson also finished with eight points. Shequia Ridley finished with six points.

Piedmont coach Matt Deerman praised the efforts of Prater and Dixon for helping the Bulldogs capture the win.

“Raven is our most consistent scorer, and usually we go how she goes,” Deerman said. “If she has a big night, we have a big night also. Brea does a lot of dirty work. She’s always our leading rebounder and always blocking out. She’s actually undersized playing the post, but she does an excellent job of getting position and blocking out. You’ve got to have that kind of role player.”

Piedmont jumped out to a 21-4 lead at the end of the first quarter. Cedar Bluff was able to cut that deficit to 29-17 at the break. The Lady Tigers whittled Piedmont’s advantage down to 10 early in the third quarter, but could never get any closer.

“They made a gallant effort to cut it to 10 a couple of times in the third quarter, but unfortunately we dug ourselves too deep of a hole,” Carpenter said. “I was concerned if we pressed them, they would throw the ball over us. That was a coaching mistake on my part. We stayed in a zone way too long before we tried to press. Piedmont has outstanding post players, and it’s difficult for us to handle those kind of tall girls.”

Cedar Bluff was led by Jessica Brannon’s 12 points, all of which came in the second half. Tanessa Fife added 11 points and eight rebounds. Audrianna Hargitt had seven points and Lindsey Lambert finished with six points.

“We’re going to have to have somebody else step up and handle some scoring,” Carpenter said. “We’re not asking for 20 points a game, but somebody’s going to have to step up and start getting eight or six points on an average basis.”