Smith leads Latta rally with potent second half

YUKON — An animated Trent Smith sat most of the entire second quarter on the bench.

Latta’s leading scorer was visibly frustrated at himself, reaching around to pound his arm against the back of his chair as Hooker slowly pulled away.

Upon finally checking back into the game, Smith was not returning to the sidelines. And he wasn’t leaving the arena without a victory.

Smith scored a game-high 25 points — 21 in the second half — as Latta defeated Hooker 42-41 in Friday’s Class 2A boys semifinal.

Hooker led 21-16 at halftime and held a five-point lead with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. That’s when Smith took control of the game.

Latta closed out the quarter on a 12-2 run to take a five-point lead. Smith finished the quarter with consecutive 3’s, the later a fallaway 25-footer at the buzzer.

“We talked at halftime how at first and got two easy baskets, but we reverted back to bad habits,” Latta coach Matt Bryant said. “Yesterday we had a good third quarter push, and our guys worked together and grinded it out again tonight.”

To find his rhythm, Smith had to sit most of the second quarter with two fouls. Bryant credited his team for playing tough with Smith on the bench, but Hooker increased its lead to five while Latta’s leading scorer sat.

Smith returned with 1:43 remaining in the first half, and he didn’t pick up another foul until the fourth quarter.

“He had to sit there and watch, so he was ready when he went back in,” Bryant said. “I thought the team did a good job of staying in there with him sitting. We even had opportunities to take the lead. That didn’t make it a tough decision because I trusted the guys on the floor.”

Hooker chipped away at Latta’s fourth-quarter lead, but a key sequence with two minutes remaining gave Latta enough to hold its lead. Smith, after making the first free throw, missed his second, but Elijah Factor grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked it back out to the perimeter. Latta killed 30 seconds before Smith made a driving and-one layup.

The subsequent made free throw resulted in a four-point Latta swing without Hooker touching the ball.

Hooker’s Ethan Parsons made a 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining to cut Latta’s lead to three. After Smith missed the front-end of a one-and-one, Hooker’s Tate Cathcart made an and-one layup with 20.3 seconds remaining. However, Cathcart missed the would-be tying free throw.

Hooker had one more chance to win with 1.4 seconds remaining, but it could not complete its full-court inbounds pass.