Spread attack carries LCA to tourney title

The Bulldogs used a second-half four corners to pull away from Timberlake Christian for a 74-53 win over the Tornadoes in the finals of the Private Schools Holiday Classic Saturday night at Holy Cross.

In collecting the championship trophy, the Bulldogs, 6-2, had to overcome the 28-point performance by TCS center R.T. Lyons. A 6-foot-3 senior, Lyons was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by LCA's Reggie Finley and Pat Yeatts, Holy Cross' Scott Shallon and VES guard Robert Workman.

"Lyons did a great job of keeping them in the game," Gifford said. "He shot the ball well inside, was very physical and played the entire 32 minutes diving after loose balls and hustling up and down the floor."

The Bulldogs took a seven-point halftime lead and outscored the Tornadoes, 7-2, in the first three minutes of the third to take a 45-30 lead. Robert Mitchell scored 4 of his 10 points in the run, helping to put the game out of reach.

TCS, now 4-5, closed the gap to 11 points on a Lyons' layup with 3:21 left in the period but could not get any closer.

Despite playing with only five healthy players and leading scorer Greg Pulliam out with an ankle injury, the Tornadoes played LCA to a 17-17 first-period tie and took the lead on Lyon's layup with 7:51 left — their last lead.

"We just ran out of gas," Timberlake coach Rodney Kane said. "When you play a ballclub like (LCA), you have to play your best ball to beat them. R.T. had a career out there tonight ... but when you don't have a bench to go to, it makes it tough. And when they pulled it out on us, playing man-to-man in the second half made it worse on us."

By Harold Drumheller, Staff writer
The News & Advance