Generals battle state-ranked LaFayette for tournament title
The Heritage Generals collected two solid wins at Gordon Lee last week, but endured a heartbreaking, one-point loss to unbeaten LaFayette in an emotionallycharged battle in the finals of the Chick-fil-A Christmas Tournament this past Thursday night.
HERITAGE 54, DADE COUNTY 48
The Generals took down the Wolverines in a close contest to open the tournament last Tuesday. Heritage led by one after one quarter, hung on to the slim one-point advantage at the break, and took a two-point cushion into the fourth quarter.
Kaleb Gallman had a gamehigh 20 points and went 5 of 5 at the free throw line to help Heritage to the win. Ty Loveless went for 12 points. Ryan Heet, Kaden Swope, Collin Swearingin and Bryce Travillian all had five apiece, while J.C. Armour scored two.
HERITAGE 73, RIDGELAND 53
The semifinal on Wednesday saw the Generals knock down 12 triples and outscore the Panthers 38-20 in the second half to blow open what had been a twopoint halftime lead. The game did not count in the Region 7-AAAA standings.
Up 35-33 at intermission, Heritage got a spark from Armour, who scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the second half. The Generals built an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter before holding the Panthers to just seven points over the final eight minutes.
Gallman had four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points, while Travillian scored a dozen points with three treys.
The remainder of the scoring included eight points from Carson Green, five points by Swearingin, four each by Swope and Loveless, and three from Heet.
LAFAYETTE 43, HERITAGE 42
A dramatic finish in front of packed house on
Thursday night saw Heritage (6-5) get a steal and a chance at the winning basket with 5.2 seconds left on the clock. However, the iron proved to be unkind to the Generals, who fell one point short.
Heritage took an early 10-2 lead before going into halftime up 17-14. They led by four in the third quarter when the Ramblers — ranked No. 5 in Class AAA — went on a 9-4 run to grab a seven-point lead late in the period.
Undaunted, Gallman and Heet delivered back-toback 3-pointers, while another basket by Heet tied the game at 35 with 4:29 to go. Gallman went on to score the next seven points for the Generals, including a big 3-pointer with 2:07 remaining that gave Heritage a 42-41 lead.
LaFayette missed on its next possession, but a Heritage turnover gave the ball back to the Ramblers, who connected with 44 seconds left to forge a one-point lead. Another Heritage turnover with 10.1 ticks left on the clock would force the Generals to start fouling as they looked to collect enough fouls to send LaFayette to the free throw line.
But with just over five seconds left, Heet made an outstanding, athletic play to knock away a LaFayette inbound pass. Max Owens was able to corral the bouncing ball and fire a pass back to Heet, who streaked toward the basket as the clock ticked down.
Everyone in the gym held their breath as the ball caromed off the backboard and slowly circled the entire circumference of the rim before falling to the floor and giving LaFayette the victory.
Gallman scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to help fuel the Generals’ comeback. Loveless and Heet had six and five points, respectively, and Travillian went for four. The rest of the scoring included three from Green and two each from Swope, Armour and Swearingin.