HARTSELLE – The Tigers won their second consecutive 6A Area 14 championship by dismantling Cullman 79-48.

Brody Peebles led the Hartselle attack with 32 points. He now sits at 1,998 points for his career.

Hartselle broke open a tie game with an 11-2 run to build a 17-8 lead at the end of the first. Peebles scored five points, Tad Sivley added four, and Luke Ward had three.

The Tigers began to pull away in the second by outscoring the Bearcats 25-15. Fifteen of the Hartselle points came from hitting five three-pointers. The Tigers led 42-23 heading into the half. Peebles knocked down three three-pointers while scoring 13 points in the quarter. Sivley had seven points and Ward added five. Sivley finished the first half with five rebounds and five assists.

Hartselle (25-6) extended the lead in the third following a slow start. Cullman scored the first six points of the quarter before being outscored 24-6 over the final five minutes. Peebles scored 10 points while Sivley and Ward each had five. The Tigers led 66-35 at the end of three.

Peebles scored his final four points of the game on back to back shots to start the fourth quarter. The teams played even over the final eight minutes with each scoring 13.

Sivley finished with a double-double as he had 16 points and 10 rebounds along with six assists for the Tigers. Ward added 13 points while Ryan Dunn added six points, five rebounds, and three assists. Jackson Raley had five points and Coleman Mizell scored four points.

Cullman (15-14) was led by Kaleb Heatherly’s 20 points and Max Gambrill’s 15.

COACH KEY’S THOUGHTS

I thought that we played with more fire tonight. We knew it was going to be a fight early, so we wanted to come out an outplay them early and we did that. Luke Ward played great off the bench tonight as he made the most of his playing time with his 13 points. We still have areas that we need to improve if we are going to reach our goal of a State Championship.

UP NEXT

Hartselle will host Columbia (9-17), who lost to Muscle Shoals 60-46, in the Sub-Regional on Tuesday at 7 pm. This is a rematch of last year’s sub-regional won by Columbia 58-53.