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Briarwood, who recently moved up to No. 3 in the 5A basketball standings, was able to hold on for a big win against Anniston on Wednesday, Dec. 19. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

NORTH SHELBY – It wasn’t easy at the end, but the Briarwood Lions were able to stave off a comeback attempt from the Anniston Bulldogs in the first round of the Oak Mountain Invitational on Wednesday, Dec. 19, by a final score of 53-50.

The Lions, who are now 8-3 overall and No. 3 in the 5A standings, led by as many as 13 points in the third quarter and were rolling before Anniston’s full-court press brought the Bulldogs to within one point on several occasions, but Briarwood was able to hit a couple of late free throws to pull out a closely contested game.

Briarwood was able to get off to a solid start in the game with a 12-4 run in the first quarter thanks to some fast-paced play. Eventually, the Lions gave up a three late in the period, but they were still able to take a 12-7 advantage at the end of the opening frame thanks to a spread out effort.

The second quarter wasn’t as much one sided, but more of a quarter of runs starting with one from Anniston. The Bulldogs were able to start the quarter on a quick 5-0 run to tie the game 12-12.

During that stretch, Hayden Lamey, one of Briarwood’s best players, picked up his second foul with 6:35 left to play, which forced him to the bench.

Still, the Lions were able to halt Anniston’s run with an NBA-range 3-pointer from Jack Dicen, which sparked a 10-0 run for Briarwood to take its largest lead of the game at 10 points midway through the second period.

Like the Lions had done minutes earlier, Anniston had a big answer with a deep three of its own to spark a 9-0 run to close out the quarter and bring the score to 22-21 at the half.

The runs continued coming out of the locker room into the second half, but early on the only run came from Briarwood as the Lions were able to put together two separate 8-0 runs to eventually take a 39-26 after outscoring the Bulldogs 17-5 in the first five minutes of the quarter.

The difference was defense from Chance Beard who was picking up block-after-block in the period, while Lamey finally started seeing some shots drop.

Anniston’s scrappiness, however, paid off as the Bulldogs were able to get some confidence heading to the final quarter with a 5-0 run to close out the frame, which brought the score to 39-31.

The run for Anniston continued into the fourth quarter eventually extending it to a 10-0 run to get within three points with 6:10 to play as the Bulldogs’ defensive pressure the length of the floor caused the Lions issues.

With Anniston now back in the game, an exciting finish was set.

The Bulldogs eventually were able to get within one point at 41-40 as their defensive pressure made Briarwood work extremely hard just to get the ball across the half court line.

Following that basket, the two teams went back-and-forth trading baskets over the next eight possessions with Briarwood holding a 50-48 lead with 23.2 seconds left and inbounding the ball out of a timeout.

Eventually the ball found its way into Blake Lester’s hands, who got fouled and went to the line for two shots. Hester stepped up and calmly sank both free throws for the Lions to extend their lead to 52-48 with 15.4 seconds left to play.

Anniston tried to hustle up the floor for a quick basket but came away empty-handed.

With 6.4 seconds left, Dicen stepped to the line and hit one of two free throws to ice the game before a final shot at the buzzer by the Bulldogs led to the final score of 53-50.

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