By Bart Moss

For the FCT

Semi-Finals

Belgreen 53, Tharptown 42

The Belgreen Bulldogs and Tharptown Wildcats have met four times this season with the stakes seemingly getting higher with each meeting.

The two teams met Saturday night in the elimination game of the area tournament at Phillips high school and the Belgreen Bulldogs came out victorious.

Belgreen jumped out to a 17-8 first quarter lead and extended that lead to fourteen points by halftime, 36-22.

Tharptown was able to close the gap to 11 points in the third quarter outscoring Belgreen 8-5. The Wildcats held the Bulldogs to only two field goals in the second half but couldn’t score enough points to overcome their early hole.

Will Barnwell led Belgreen with 19 points. He was followed by Chase Landers with 15 points. Other Bulldogs scoring were Dustin Smith (9), Josh Devaney (4), Dakota Davis (4) and Jarred Mitchell (2).

Tharptown was led by Blake Gray who scored 14 points. He was followed by Kelby Hallmark with 11 points. Other Wildcats scoring were Riley Nolen (8), Drake Lawson (6) and Max Nolen (2).