Franklin County Rebels Hold Off Wildcats in Double-Overtime
by Mike McGee [Photos]
  In one of the most thrilling basketball games in Tullahoma in many a year, the Franklin County Rebels and Tullahoma Wildcats battled to double-overtime Tuesday night at the THS gym before the Rebels proved to be two points better, 77-75.
Tryston Horton puts up a shot during Tuesday night's thriller against Frankin County
  In addition to the back-and-forth action on the scoreboard, the game featured some truly outstanding individual performances. Rebel big man Ryan Stovall led all scorers with 29 points, but a couple of Wildcats were right on his heels for individual honors. Tryston Horton had the best game of his high school career, pouring in 27 points including five 3-pointers, and Brandon Hall virtually matched Stovall basket for basket in the paint with 26 points. Kontrell Southern added 20 points for the Rebels.
  In the end, it came down to a Stovall layup with two seconds remaining in double overtime. He got the feed for the bucket from Giordani Taylor, who ran most of the final 1:20 off the clock before driving and dishing to Stovall for the game winner.
  The Wildcats missed a golden opportunity to win it in regulation when they missed four shots in the final eight seconds of the 67-67 game. It started with an open 10 footer, and three attempted put backs missed the mark before the final buzzer.
  The first overtime was a free-throw shooting contest with all the points coming from the line until Jordan Haugen hit a leaning jumper from 15 feet with 11.5 seconds left to tie it 73-73 and send it to a second overtime.
  Shots were much more precious in the final four-minute overtime as both teams worked the clock. Taylor put Franklin County ahead with a driving bucket with 3:31 left, and the Rebels wouldn’t score again until Stovall hit the game winner. Tullahoma’s only points in the second extra period came on Horton’s two free throws with 2:57 remaining.
  Even though Stovall and Southern led Franklin County’s scoring, it was Taylor who came up with some of the biggest points. He scored six of his 10 in the two overtime periods and managed to dribble off almost all of the final 1:20 of the second overtime before making the perfect feed to Stovall.
  Both teams hit six free throws in the two extra stanzas, but the Rebels had two field goals while the Wildcats managed only one.