The Red Level Tigers got a late bucket from Javarius Grooms to defeat the Opp Bobcats 43-42 in the final round of the Andalusia Invitational tournament Saturday afternoon.

 

The Bobcats didn’t waste much time, in the first period, jumping out front 10-4. Devonte Williams paced the Bobcats with 6 points in the first.

 

In the second, the Tigers moved the ball around well to create high percentage looks for their shooters. The score was knotted up at 19-19 at halftime. Tigers’ Devon Dexter and Hunter Carpenter had 4 points each in the period. Carpenter had a field goal and went 2-for-2 from the line. Reggie Thompson had 4 points for the Bobcats.

 

The lead went back and forth in the third period, and Dewayne Bonam put the Bobcats up by one with a strong layup with about a second left in the period. At the end of the third, the Bobcats led 31-30.  Williams had 6 third-period points for the Bobcats. Dexter showed his range with a long 3-pointer for the Tigers.

 

Dameyune Scott put the Tigers up 32-31 when he sank an off-balanced shot to begin the final period. The Bobcats answered right back taking the lead back at 33-32. Jeffery Perdue gave the lead back to the Tigers after going 2-for-2 from the free throw line with just under seven minutes to play. The lead changed hands once more when Bobcats’ Raheem Bonam nailed a jumper to give them a 35-34 lead. With 20 seconds left on the clock, and with the Tigers down by one, Grooms swiped the ball from a Bobcat player and finished it off with a layup. The Bobcats made several shots in the final seconds, but none could find the basket. The Bobcats’ Thompson almost hit a miraculous shot from the seat of his pants just as the buzzer sounded, but the shot just missed catching the front of the rim.

 

Williams led the Bobcats with 12 points, and Thompson finished with a total of 8 points.

 

Perdue was the leading scorer for the Tigers with 13 points. Grooms tallied 8 points, including a game winning shot in the final seconds.

 

“I was proud of the effort today,” Tigers’ head coach Allen Catrett said. “We found a way to win. We might not have played well the entire game, but we played well enough to pull it out in the end. It was a team effort today.”