The Cottondale Hornets saw their season come to an end Tuesday night in Quincy, falling to the West Gadsden Panthers 66-44 in the first round of the 1A playoffs.
West Gadsden (26-2) advances to Saturday night’s Regional Final round where it will travel to Graceville to take on the Tigers at 7 p.m.
Cottondale’s season ends at 19-9.
The Hornets faced long odds in trying to beat the powerhouse Panthers on the road where they haven’t been defeated all season, but CHS stayed within striking distance for much of the way, trailing by nine at the end of the second and third quarters.
But a big run by West Gadsden to start the fourth blew the game open, and the athletic Panthers cruised home for yet another lopsided victory.
West Gadsden has now won its last four games by an average margin of 20 points.
However, Cottondale coach Chris Obert said his team gave its best shot against what he called the most athletic team he has faced all year.
“We fought, clawed, and scratched like crazy to stay in the game,” the coach said. “I’m proud of my guys. They played hard and came out there with the mentality you have to have to go into a place like that and pull an upset. We hung in there going into the fourth, but we probably needed to make a couple more shots to make it closer. I thought we had them on the ropes a little bit, but we had a bad spell, they stretched it out real quick, and we couldn’t get back in it.”
Charis Fitzgerald scored 18 points to lead West Gadsden, while Marquis Brown had 13, and Brandon Shingles 12, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
Jerrod Blount had 27 points to lead the Hornets, who lost in Quincy for the second time this season.
“It was a great playoff environment. It was a packed house and a hostile crowd. It was fun to go over there and play in something like that,” Obert said. “The kids enjoyed it. It would’ve been better to pull off the upset, but that’s a real good team over there. But the kids never stopped fighting and competing.”
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