Welcome back Brady Wallace and Phillip Summerford.

The two Hartselle seniors had breakout performances to help the Tigers (1-1) christen the school’s new gym with a 62-40 win over rival Brewer.

Both Wallace and Summerford haven’t been in a Hartselle uniform over the last two seasons. Wallace, who earned the series-clinching win over Spanish Fort in the Class 5A baseball finals last spring, gave up basketball after ninth grade before returning to the program in the offseason.

Summerford spent the most of 2012-2013 season on the bench dealing with an illness.

But the two looked like seasoned veterans. Wallace nailed seven 3-pointers to lead the Tigers with 21 points. Summerford had a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Coach Keith Wright said it was exciting to see his seniors enjoy the special night.

“What Brady did tonight is exactly what he does every day in practice,” Wright said. “He hits nearly every shot. He was a little tight the other night at Arab, going 0-for-7, but tonight he got hot.

“We weren’t even sure Phillip was going to play at all. He was sick, but he came in and played anyway. And he had his best game by far,” Wright said. “It was a really special night.”

Wright said the team fed off the energy from the crowd.

“It was the best atmosphere for a basketball game that we’ve had in a long time,” Wright said. “It’s great that the student section is back behind us again. It created some problems with communication because it got so loud, but that’s something we’ll gladly deal with.”

Wallace gave the crowd something to cheer about in the first quarter, hitting five from the behind the arc to give Hartselle an 18-8 lead.

Turnovers allowed Brewer to get back in the game, as the Patriots cut the lead to 29-22 by halftime. The Tigers had 20 for the game.

Hartselle pulled away thanks to its 43-22 rebounding advantage, which allowed Hartselle to outscore the Patriots 18-13 and 15-5 in the final two quarters.

Dolen Golden added nine points followed by Tobias Mitchell with eight, Masio Stover, Jamal Jackson and Zeth Malcolm with two each and Josiah Lanier with one.

Kolton Bramlett led the Patriots with 14 points followed by Brendon Deberry with 10, Zach Steffen with seven, Cole Oldacre with six and Josh Campbell with three.