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The Central Magnet Tigers boys nailed down eight 3-pointers in 11 attempts as they stayed two steps ahead of the Cannon County Lions in their matchup Friday evening in Woodbury.
The Lions weren't able to overtake the Tigers despite shooting a nice 18 of 30 from the field.
Central found the 3-point success against the Lion zone defense and forced Cannon to play man-to-man most of the second half. The Tigers focused on stopping
Brandon Miles who was back on the court after suffering a deep bruise on his left leg against York on Tuesday.
It was doubtful before game time that Miles would even play. Miles only scored four points and was just 1-4 from the field.
Central got out to a 13-6 lead as they hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter. Cannon trimmed the lead several times throughout the game but couldn't totally catch up.
In the fourth quarter, Cannon never got a run and Central hit free throws down the stretch to wrap up the win 54-44.
Wade Love led the Lions with 15 points. Trey Fann scored 10 of his total 12 points in the second half. Lane Willis finished with 4. Other Lions scoring: Blake Bush-3, Justin Whited-2, Luke Jakes-3. Lions are now 2-8 overall.
• The Cannon County Lions did everything on the list of things they needed to do to put themselves in an opportunity to win their second district game in four tries against York on Tuesday.
They kept the game under 50 points. They forced York into many one-shot opportunities while controlling the rebounds in the second half. Cannon's inside-outside combo of Brandon Miles, Trey Fann and Wade Love started clicking in the third and fourth quarters.
Then with about 5:30 left to go in the game, the possible turning point happened in York's favor. Lions' guard Miles, while aggressively going for a rebound, got entangled with a York player and came crashing down hard to the floor. Miles hurt his left leg and would not return the rest of the game.
At that point the lead was back-and-forth and the game tied several times. Love and Fann took over scoring in the period in Miles' absence.
With 14 seconds left to go in the game York was ahead by two, 43-41. York fouled Fann but he was only able to hit one of the two free throws to trail by one. Cannon then fouled Case Moody. Moody missed the second free throw which set up a last second opportunity for the Lions.
With eight seconds left on the clock and down 44-42, the Lions inbounded the ball and found guard Justin Whited wide open for a 3-point shot. Whited just missed but Fann grabbed the rebound and it looked like as he was going back up with a shot for the eventual tie he was shoved from behind making his shot go awkward. No whistles blew and the Lions lost a potential opportunity to tie and go into overtime, losing 44-42.
Love led the Lions with 14 points. Fann and Miles each finished with 9. Lane Willis added 6, Dalton Hillis and Blake Bush contributed 2 each in the loss.
