Baskets in the closing seconds help Scottsboro rally past North Jackson
Story By Jason Bowen
The Scottsboro varsity boys basketball program extended its long winning streak against rival North Jackson, but the Wildcats had to earn it.
The Wildcats scored two baskets in the final 45 seconds before adding three late free throws to secure a 61-57 comeback win over the Chiefs in Stevenson Tuesday night.
It was Scottsboro’s 30th straight win in the series. North Jackson’s last win over the Wildcats came on Dec. 15, 2009.
“Heck of a game and I’m so proud of our guys,” said Scottsboro head coach Jason Bell. “The way it’s been going lately, you look at our record, and we haven’t played well in a couple of games lately. And when you look at how this game was going, our kids could’ve laid down and gave up. But our kids won’t do that. They gutted this one out. It looked like it was going to be tough to pull it out, and we found a way. I’m super proud of them.”
The Chiefs were close to ending their losing skid to their rival.
“We’d discussed that it had been a long time since we had competed with them. We competed with them tonight, we just made a few crucial mistakes toward the end,” said North Jackson head coach Tony Brown. “It hurts. We just couldn’t finish. But they played their hearts out and I’m proud of them.”
In the teams’ first meeting since Jan. 2, 2024, North Jackson erased an early 7-0 lead to tie the score 14-all after one quarter, and a back-and-forth second period resulted in a 27-all halftime tie.
After Cooper Harding’s basket gave Scottsboro a 31-30 lead early in the third quarter, the Chiefs used an 8-2 scoring run that featured Nick Price Jr.’s 3-point play, ZZ Taylor’s low-post basket and Price’s 3-pointer to take a 38-33 lead. Scottsboro countered with an 8-0 run that included two 3-pointers from Bryce Bell and a basket from Antonio Brocks to grab a 41-38 lead, but Price sank another trey for the Chiefs, who then got a Bodie Burnette 3-pointer and free throw and a basket from Taylor to carry a 47-43 lead into the fourth quarter.
Taylor’s free throw gave North Jackson a 54-50 lead with 3:01 remaining, but the Chiefs went scoreless for nearly two-and-a-half minutes while committing three turnovers.
Scottsboro crept to within 54-53 on Taygan Harris’ free throw with 1:12 left to play, and followed a North Jackson turnover with Bryce Bell’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 44.2 seconds remaining. Price then drove the baseline and scored the tying bucket for the Chiefs while drawing the foul, and the junior sank the free throw to put North Jackson back in front 57-56 with 32.9 second to play. But Scottsboro answered quickly as Aiden Rains got free inside with 21.6 seconds remaining for what proved to be the game-winning basket for Scottsboro.
“We were just trying to get movement, and (Rains) happened to be the guy to get free and score for us,” Jason Bell said.
Kade Matayo came up with a steal for the Wildcats on North Jackson’s ensuing possession and Bryce Bell made a free throw to extend Scottsboro’s lead to 59-57 with 7.1 seconds left, but North Jackson drew a foul with 4.8 remaining with a chance to tie. But the Chiefs missed the first free throw, and Scottsboro’ Lawson Lee rebounded the intentional miss on the second free throw and tried to dribble out the clock before being fouled and sent to the free-throw line with two-tenths of a second remaining and swishing two foul shots.
“This was a good win for us, one we needed,” Jason Bell said. “North Jackson is a good team — got so many that can shoot. They beat New Hope, a Final Four caliber team, here. We did enough to win and I’m proud of them.”
Four Wildcats scored in double figures, led by Bryce Bell’s 14 points. Harding closed with 12 points while Rains and Lee netted 10 each for Scottsboro (5-11), which also got six each from Harris and Eli Worthy and two from Zay Simpson.
Price scored 20 points and Taylor netted 18 for North Jackson (5-8), while Connor Reed had five, Maddux McLain had four and Cordell Jackson and Jordan Moore had two each.
