The Hopkinsville Tigers won their fourth-straight game with a 54-49 result over hosts Clarksville Northeast on Wednesday night. Tiger big man Jamarion Sharp turned in a strong performance on both ends of the court, helping the Tigers build a 20-point third quarter lead, before having to hold on for the victory.
The Tigers improve to 12-8 overall with a trip to Madison Central (9-9) coming up on Saturday. The Eagles, a season removed from being District 10 and Region 5 AAA champions in Tennessee, have a 3-game win streak snapped to slip to 10-10.
Sharp started quickly, scoring the Tigers’ first 6 points. He also blocked three Eagle shots, before scoring the final basket of the quarter to pull to within 2 at 13-11.
Reece Jesse scored to tie the game at 15-15 with 5:38 left in the half, before the Tigers closed on a 17-5 run to lead by 12 at halftime. Hoptown’s James Nicholas poured in 12 points over the final 3 minutes, including 9-straight to lead all scorers at the break.
Sharp was back at it in the third, assisting Jacarius Burks, before blocking two shots at the other end, and scoring on a dunk to force an Eagle timeout with the Tigers leading 36-20. Burks and Sharp scored on back-to-back putbacks to stretch the margin to 20, before Northeast’s Shaun Robinson answered with 7-straight to cut the lead in half.
Coming out of a timeout with the Tigers leading by 12, Sharp scored 6-straight, including two dunks, to put Hoptown up 16 with 4:00 to play. However, the Eagles scored the next 9 to only trail 50-43 with just over 2 minutes left. Northeast scored the last 4 points to get within 5, before missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer after Arthur McKnight missed the front end of a 1 and 1.
Sharp hauled down 13 rebounds and blocked 7 shots to go with his game-high 18 points. Nicholas finished with 12, Burks had 10, including 6 in the fourth, and Jesse scored 9.
For the Eagles, Robinson led the way with 15, followed by Alec Kegler with 12, and Juntavious Harris with 10.
