By Mike Goodson/Sports Correspondent
New Hope Indians scored 22 points off 21 Westbrook Christian turnovers on the way to 66-47 victory in the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament semifinals on Saturday (Feb. 21) at Jacksonville State.
The loss snapped the Warriors’ 15-game winning streak.
“We were doing a good job at that time of holding them to one shot, but we made some mistakes in terms of taking care of the basketball,” said Westbrook head coach Donny Pruitt. “What is a small mistake against an average ball team becomes a big mistake against a good ball team.”
The top-ranked Warriors (30-4) led 15-12 after one quarter and increased the advantage to 24-14 midway through the second period.
The roof then fell in for the Warriors, as the No. 8 Indians (23-3) put together a 20-4 run en route to a 34-29 halftime lead.
Westbrook pulled within 40-34 at the end of the third quarter but New Hope led by double digits the rest of the way.
The Warriors shot 22 percent (17-for-54) from the field.
“What they did was dare us to throw the ball inside,” said Pruitt. “Most of the time if you throw the ball into the block, you are going to score some points. We threw it into the block and got nothing. We got what we wanted; we just couldn’t finish. I felt pretty good about us there. All of our guys that came off the bench played well.”
Garret Kennedy led Westbrook with 11 points along with five rebounds and five steals.
Will Jones scored seven points, while Boo Shirley added five.
Chandler Richards grabbed 10 rebounds.
Omar Jolly led the Indians with 21 points, followed by Adam Browner with 19.