St. Stephens High’s Indians trailed only once in a 74-67 win over Watauga on Tuesday night, but getting to the final buzzer had several tense moments in a physical game.
The third-seeded Indians led 60-41 with just over four minutes to play before the second-seeded Pioneers made things interesting in a Northwestern 3A-4A tournament semifinal at Hickory.
St. Stephens (20-5) still held off the Pioneers (17-8) and will face top-seeded Hickory (21-3) for the tournament title at 8 p.m. Friday at Hickory.
Down the stretch, Watauga’s Will Koppenhaver hit a 3-point shot and -- at the same time -- Casey Quinn was fouled in the battle for rebound position. Quinn made two free throws.
After Aaron Grier (18 points, nine rebounds) hit a shot for the Indians, Isaac Hodges hit a long jumper.
On the Pioneers’ next possession, Jake Pifer scored on an offensive rebound. On the same play, the Indians’ Morgan McLeod took an elbow to the eye.
Things quickly heated up between the teams when Harrison Bowne, who also took an elbow earlier in the game, came onto the court from the bench. Bowne received a technical foul, with Koppenhaver hitting both shots to get Watauga within 62-53.
The Pioneers closed within 67-62 on another jumper by Koppenhaver (22 points) with just over a minute to play, but Watauga got no closer because St. Stephens hit 5-of-7 free throws over the final 40 seconds.
Early on, Watauga had a 9-7 lead but the Indians scored 14 unanswered points over a span of 3:29 to lead 23-7. Grier hit two jumpers and had a put back to lead St. Stephens.
The Pioneer had difficulty getting anything going over the first three quarters, hitting only 10-of-29 field goals and making 17 turnovers.
St. Stephens led 32-21 at the half and upped that to 47-30 heading into the final eight minutes.
“Defense and rebounds,” said St. Stephens head coach Gary Bowne when asked about the success of the first three quarters. “They accepted the challenge; they manned up.”
Sixth man Ricky Miller led the Indians, scoring a team-high 19 points. He had 17 points over the second and third quarters and was coming off an 18-point first-round game. Andrew Zachrich added 17 points for St. Stephens.
“We like him coming off the bench to give us a spark on both ends of the floor.” said Gary Bowne said of Miller.
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