Alma’s late charge buries Greenwood

5A-WEST BOYS ALMA 54, GREENWOOD 43

ALMA — The Alma Airedales had the perfect game- ending rally on Wednesday night.

The Airedales scored the final 16 points to rally past rival Greenwood 54- 43 at Charles B. Dyer Arena in a 5A-West makeup game.

Alma (5-18, 2-7) trailed 4032 to start the fourth quarter but scored on nine of 12 possessions, hitting 7-of-12 shots from the floor with four offensive rebounds and just two turnovers, to wipe out the deficit.

“We had that timeout, and I told them that now we’re scoring but we’re not getting stops,” Alma coach Dominic Lincoln said. “We had to get multiple stops in a row, we’ve got to stop them and get the first rebound then execute and be aggressive. I told them just execute the defensive game plan, then took good shots and the ball went into the hole. Everything looks better when you make shots.”

Carmani Smith started the 16-0 run to end the game with a 3-pointer with 4:54 left and Matthew Schlegel scored on a reverse layup to tie the game at 43-43 with 4:07 left.

Smith drove for a bucket, was fouled, and added the free throw to give Alma it’s first lead of the game at 46-43 with 3:18 left.

Easton Boggs scored on a rebound, Smith drove for a bucket, and Camden Curd, who had a 3-pointer earlier in the fourth quarter, hit four free throws in the final 33 seconds to ice the game.

Greenwood ( 5-18, 0- 9), which dropped a tough, 5755, decision to another rival, Van Buren, on Tuesday night, jumped out to a 19-4 lead seven minutes into the first quarter and a 22-9 lead after a quarter behind four 3-pointers by Dawson Holt, and one each by L.J. Robins and Braden Bollman.

Greenwood still led 27-19 at the half with Aiden Kennon bagging a trey.

“We gave up seven threes, six in the first quarter,” Lincoln said. “They only scored five points in the second quarter so I thought we did a good job on our secondand third-quarter defense. I told them if we just eliminate those shots and communicate a little bit more, we didn’t have to change anything, we just have to do our game plan better.”

Greenwood went up, 3621, with a 9-0 run in the third quarter again spurred by a trey by Holt before the Airedales started nipping away at the deficit with their own 9-0 run.

Matthew Rogers swished a 3-pointer after being left all alone and Israel Towns-Robinson scored consecutive buckets down low. Schlegel hit two free throws to draw Alma within, 36-30 with 1:26 left in the third quarter.

Israel Towns- Robinson finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, all in the final three quarters, and two steals for Alma. Curd had 12 points, including seven in the fourth quarter, and six rebounds. Smith had eight points, all in the fourth quarter. Schlegel had six points and six boards.

Holt led Greenwood with 19 points. Kennon chipped in 11.