By Russell Frye

For the Enquirer

The Hartselle Tigers were looking to win their third county championship in a row as they took the floor in the title game of the Morgan County Tournament.

The second-seeded Tigers were taking on the top-seeded West Morgan Rebels for the first time this season. The Tigers got 10 points from sophomore Brody Peebles, jumped out to a 22-13 lead in the first quarter and never looked back, beating the Rebels.

Hartselle (19-6) was led by Peebles’ 25 points, while Will Stephenson had 20 to go along with 17 points from Tad Sivley.

“Brody had a good first half for us. He was in attack mode from the start,” said Hartselle Coach Faron Key.

The Rebels (19-5) were unable to get into any flow on offense, as the Tigers were pressuring the ball handler as soon as they crossed half court. This pressure led to 18 steals and several bad passes leading to turnovers.

While Peebles was scoring 20 of his 25 points in the first half, Sivley added 15. The two players combined for 35 of Hartselle’s 44 points as the Tigers led 44-29 at halftime.

West Morgan was led by Ashton Owens, who scored 17 points and had four rebounds and three steals. John Phillips added 10 points.

With Hartselle’s reserves playing a majority of the second half, the defense continued to clamp down, holding the Rebels to 15 points.

Stephenson added 16 of his 20 points in the second half for the Tigers, hitting three three-pointers.

The Tigers dominated the glass, as they pulled down 35 rebounds – which led to several second and third chances for points, especially during the first half. Keondre Swoopes led the Tigers with nine rebounds.

The 2019 Morgan County title was the third in a row for the Tigers and their 16th title overall.

Key is the first Hartselle coach to win three consecutive titles and the first since former Brewer coach Sam Brown led the Patriots to three consecutive titles in 2004-06.

In looking at what the Tigers have ahead of them, Key said, “We have some big games over the next two weeks that we’ve been working toward all season.  We need to clean up our unforced turnovers, block-out better and continue to strengthen our defense before we reach the area tourney and sub-region games.”

The 2019 All-County Team includes the following student-athletes: from Hartselle, Tyon Jones, Tad Sivley, Keondre Swoopes and 2019 J.C. Petty and Wayne Bowling MVP Brody Peebles; from West Morgan, John Phillips, Ashton Owens and Carson Muse; from Danville, KJ Melson and Wren Cole; from Brewer, Levi Kelley and Michael Childers; and from Falkville, Camden Reed.