By KEVIN WEAKS
Press Sports
Westview almost pulled off an amazing comeback.
Almost.
The Chargers stormed back to within five points in the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as 29 in the first half before ultimately suffering a 90-82 loss to Ripley in the semifinals of the District 13AA Tournament at Dyersburg on Friday night.
With the loss, the Chargers dropped to the consolation game on Monday night, where they knocked off Crockett County 88-83 (see related story).
All four teams will next play in the Region 7AA Tournament this week. The quarterfinals will be played Saturday night at the sites of the higher seeds, meaning Westview will be on the road.
“We’d definitely rather play at home,” assistant coach B.J. Callins said. “It’s going to be tougher, but we have good senior leadership and I think we can pull through.”
Callins filled in as head coach on interim basis because Westview was without the services of head coach J.B. Suiter and player Javier Gordon as the result of an incident on the team’s bench during the Chargers’ win over Covington in the quarterfinals.
“It might have been a little of a factor, but we can’t put that on the team,” Callins said of the absences. “We have to come out and be ready to play no matter who’s out.”
Westview fell behind the hot-shooting Tigers — 21-of-35 field goals, including 5-of-9 3-pointers — from the opening tip and trailed 51-22 with 1:11 remaining in the half.
“They shot lights-out,” Callins said. “They hit some shots that people normally don’t hit. Overall, they played well, too. They came to play for four quarters, and we only came to play for two.”
Westview hit just 10 field goals in the first half, but two came in the final minute as Jordan Davis bottomed a triple and Jazell Baker moved in for a layup to get it within 51-27 at the break.
Davis was just getting warmed up. He buried four more treys in the third period, while Justin Johnson gave the Chargers a strong inside presence with seven points as Westview outscored Ripley 31-19 to trail just 70-58 at the break.
The Chargers connected on five triples in the third frame and then got one each from Davis and Antonio Hogard to open the final frame to get the margin back under 10 points for the first time since the start of the second frame.
Westview trimmed the margin to five points on two occasions, 78-73 and 80-75, with under three minutes to play, but Ripley hit all 16 of its free throw attempts in the final period to hold off the Chargers.

Published in The WCP 2.19.13