By Russell Frye

For The Enquirer

The West Morgan Rebels jumped out to an early lead but had to fend off a furious comeback by the Priceville Bulldogs to advance to the Morgan County Tournament Finals.

The Class 4A #10 ranked Rebels were playing the Bulldogs for the third time this season and the second time in the last 10 days. West Morgan defeated Priceville by 15+ points in each of the previous two games.

The Bulldogs tied a game where they once trailed by 12 points late in the second quarter, but the Rebels stood firm and withstood the Bulldog body blows to advance to Saturday night’s Championship game with a hard-fought 58-55 victory at Hartselle High School.

Ashton Owens scored 24 points, Carson Muse had 13 points and John Phillips added 10 as the Rebels improved to 16-7 on the season.

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs (8-16) gave up four 3-pointers early in the first half as they fell behind by as many as 12 points.

Priceville’s Brock Payne single-handedly kept the Bulldogs in the game as he scored nine of Priceville’s 13 points in the second quarter.

The Rebels held on to an eight-point lead heading into halftime.

Priceville completed the comeback with a Trey Summers 3-pointer to tie the game at 50 with less than two minutes remaining. The Rebels took the lead again with a two-point basket by Muse.

The Bulldogs tied it up with as Tyon Jones bucket skied over the West Morgan defense for the rebound and tip.

With the game tied at 52, the Rebels once again regained the lead with two Owens’ free throws.

Summers came back down the floor and knocked down his third 3-pointer of the quarter to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game, 55-54, with under a minute to go.

West Morgan regained the lead, 57-55, for good with less than twenty seconds to go when Phillips buried a deep three. He then hit a free throw to make the score 58-55.

Priceville had one final chance to tie the game but their final shot clanged off the back of the rim and was rebounded by the Rebels’ Owens.

Payne led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Jones had 18 points and six rebounds while Summers added 13.

The Rebels now await the winner of tonight’s Hartselle-Danville game.