Tigers upset Hornets, win district crown

The Cottondale Hornets won their first 13 games against District 3-1A opponents this season.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, they couldn’t finish with No. 14.

After losing both of their regular season match-ups to Cottondale – which finished atop the district with a perfect 12-0 record – the Graceville Tigers took the third and most important one Saturday night in Ponce De Leon, beating the Hornets 49-43 in the district title game.

With the win, Graceville (14-12) gets to host South Walton in the 1A Regional Semifinals, while Cottondale (19-8) will have to travel to West Gadsden.

Marquis White scored 17 points to lead the Tigers, while Rasheed Campbell had 11.

DJ Roulhac had 15 points to pace Cottondale, with Brandon Franklin adding 12, and Jerrod Blount 10.

Graceville got to the title game thanks to a pair of dominant performances in wins over Ponce De Leon and Sneads, and led virtually the entire game Saturday.

The Tigers took a 9-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, and extended the margin to 12 points at 23-11 at halftime.

Cottondale was unable to trim much off the lead in the third, with Graceville taking an 11-point edge into the final period, and holding off a late Hornets’ surge.

Graceville coach Matt Anderson, in his first year with the program, said he couldn’t have been prouder of his players.

“It’s so huge for these kids that haven’t seen much success up to this year to continue to work hard and get better all year long and bet a quality program and well coached team like Cottondale,” he said. “(Hornets) Coach (Chris) Obert does such a great job with them and they have such a good group of kids, and they made us work hard for every basket we got tonight except for maybe two.

“We tried to do the same to them, and this group of kids continued to fight the whole way to come out on top of what I thought was a very well played game, especially defensively by both teams.”

Cottondale fell behind in Friday’s semifinal game against Vernon, but was able to rally back with a 16-4 run to close the game and get the win.

But the Hornets weren’t able to generate any late game magic Saturday, as Graceville completed an impressive tournament run.

The Tigers didn’t come into the tournament with very much momentum, having lost three in a row to close the regular season and fall below .500 for the year.

But Anderson said he was proud of how his players responded to the challenge once the postseason arrived.

“It’s a testament to them and their work ethic to not give up and to continue to fight all year long,” he said. “Cottondale was obviously the class of the district this year to go through undefeated, and we lost both times we played them. But we felt like we were gaining ground all year long.

“They just kept improving and kept listening and doing what I was asking them to do, and it finally paid off for them in the biggest night of the season for us so far.”