Heritage sets boys’ mark with third straight NGAC tourney title
After splitting their two regular season meetings, with both teams winning at home, the Heritage Generals and the Ringgold Tigers met one final time on neutral ground Saturday afternoon to determine the champion of the NGAC tournament for the 2022-23 season.
The game turned out to be exactly what it was billed to be, a battle to the very last horn. However, when that last horn sounded, it was Heritage celebrating a very narrow 38-37 win at Saddle Ridge Middle School.
Ringgold got the upper hand early and led 5-4 three minutes into the game, but Heritage would go on a 10-0 run to take a lead it never relinquished. Caden Hight keyed the run with back-toback 3-pointers, while Sam Coleman and Max Hood also scored points before the end of the quarter.
The Tigers tried to keep
their heads above water in the second quarter. A three by Landon Sisk trimmed the Heritage advantage down to six points with 3:07 left in the half. However, Hight sunk another trey with 1:48 to go and the Generals eventually
took a 28-20 lead into the locker room.
The defense picked up for both teams in the third quarter, while the offenses went cold. Ringgold managed just six points in the period, but it was four more than Heritage
totaled as the Tigers pulled to within four points of the lead, 30-26, going into the final seven minutes.
Coleman scored six of Heritage’s eight points in the fourth, the last two coming on a pair of free throws with 3:51 to go that gave the Generals a 38-31 lead. Little did anyone know at the time, however, that those would be the final points Heritage would score in the game.
Ringgold’s final rally began on a bucket by Sisk with 1:36 to play and continued with a strong drive to the basket by Hunter Epps at the 1:05 mark that cut the Heritage lead down to three.
A big block by Brody Raby led to some frantic action up and down the floor over the next 45 seconds before Zach Grower connected in the paint with 15.6 seconds to play. However, a missed free throw kept Ringgold’s deficit at a single point, and forced the Tigers to foul.
But with four fouls still to give, it took another 11 seconds before the Tigers could finally put Heritage on the line. However, they were rewarded for their persistence as the Generals missed the front end of a one-on-one with four seconds remaining. Heritage, also with a foul to give, committed one at mid-court to give Ringgold the ball out of bounds with just 0.6 seconds left on the scoreboard.
With the tension building, the Tigers were able to get an open look at a 3-pointer from the wing as the buzzer sounded and, for a split second, it appeared that Ringgold would be celebrating.
However, the ball popped back out of the cylinder and fell to the floor, leaving Heritage to rush the floor in celebration of their unprecedented third consecutive NGAC boys’ tournament title.
Coleman scored 13 points for the Generals, followed by nine from Hight and six from Eli Thacker. Cohen Fletcher and Carson Rich both had four points and Hood finished with two. Fletcher was later named the tournament’s MVP.
Sisk had 10 points for the Tigers, while Raby and Grower both scored nine. Epps added seven and Blake Williams ended the day with two.