Spring Hill rallies to pass up Bulldogs, 50-41

Time for adjustments before the district schedule begins is rapidly running out for the Kilgore High School Bulldogs, who dropped a non-district home game to Spring Hill on Monday night, 50-41.

Kilgore has lost both games since it returned from Christmas break after winning three in a tournament at Tatum back in December. Coach Jimmy Williams' Bulldogs will host Hallsville on Friday night, beginning with freshmen at 5 p.m., and that will be the final non-district game of the year. The District 14-4A schedule starts for the KHS boys next Tuesday, a home game against Lindale.

The Lady Bulldogs don't have that long. They begin district play tonight at home against Jacksonville. Jacksonville has no freshman girls basketball team, so the JV game will tip off at 5 p.m. tonight, followed by varsity. See coverage in Wednesday's sports section.

• Spring Hill 50, Kilgore 41: A backand forth game was claimed by the Panthers in the fourth period, but the Bulldogs got into trouble in the third.

Kilgore led 22-21 coming back after halftime, but only managed six points in the entire third period. Still, Kilgore trailed just 30-28 headed into the fourth quarter, and had its chances.

It didn't help that senior forward Drake Bickham got into foul trouble. Bickham would eventually foul out with 24 seconds left in the contest.

Kilgore looked to be out of it with about 59 seconds left, as Spring Hill led 42-36, but Chris Ward hit a threepoint shot just in front of the KHS bench to bring the Bulldogs within three, 42-39, with 51 seconds remaining.

KHS was forced to foul, though, to send Spring Hill players to the line in hopes they'd miss the free throws and allow Kilgore to stay in the game. But in three Panthers' trips to the line, the players hit five of six charity shots. Ward was fouled from three-point range and hit two of the three free throws with 27 seconds left. Kilgore was still within six, but had no time outs. Bickham made a necessary foul to stop the clock, but fouled out in the process, and then Dillion Brown hit two free shots for Spring Hill to effectively put the game out of reach.

Ward finished as the high man for KHS with 14 points, including a pair of three-pointers. He had two rebounds and a steal as well. Bickham had eight points, led the team with 11 rebounds on the night, and had a steal and contributed with three assists.

Freshmen continue to play well for Kilgore. Shaun Williams scored six points and had six rebounds and two steals, and Kaleb "K.B." Brisendine had three points, blocked a shot and had a rebound. Matthew Dickey got in some playing time again, as well.

Devaron Harvey scored six points and had two rebounds, an assist and a steal; Patrick Colbert scored four points, had a rebound and an assist and blocked two shots; and Xavian Sanders didn't score, but did everything else. Sanders had five rebounds and four steals.

• Marshall 81, Kilgore 44: On Saturday afternoon, the Bulldogs were outgunned early here by a talented Marshall team that should give their District 13- 4A opponents fits. The Mavericks outscored Kilgore 38-10 in the first period, and led 55-25 at halftime.

"They jumped on us and we could not stop them," Williams said. "The 38- point first quarter was unbelievable. They had five players make eight three(pointers) in the first quarter. ...Their quickness really gave us problems. If we stopped the penetration, they kicked it out for the three. If we covered the three, they took it to the basket."

Kilgore committed 28 turnovers in the game. The Bulldogs shot 16-of-49 from the floor, 7-of-15 from the free throw line, and had 26 rebounds. Marshall shot a scorching 35-of-60 from the floor and had 32 rebounds. The Mavericks only committed 12 turnovers.

Colbert had his best game of the year to date with 18 points and 11 rebounds, but no one else scored in double figures. Bickham had seven points. Matthew Dickey had six, Harvey six, Williams three, and Robert Morgan and Sanders two each.