The UHA and Murray High boys’ basketball teams met Sunday afternoon at Mustang Madness at McCracken County High School, with the Tigers jumping out to a first-half lead, before the Blazers stormed back for a 76-66 victory.
UHA claims its fifth-straight win to improve to a 2nd Region-best 14-2 record. Murray drops its second game to the Blazers this season to slip to 7-9 overall.
The Tigers jumped out to a 6-0 lead to force a UHA timeout and led 13-2 halfway through the first quarter. The Blazers responded with a 9-5 run capped by a pull-up jumper by KJ Crump, but Hunter Utley knocked down his third 3-pointer of the quarter to beat the buzzer for a 24-15 Tiger advantage.
A Drew McGowan 3 pulled the Blazers to within 3, but the margin was back to 7 with a minute to play in the first half. Tommy Waldrop hit 1 of 2 free throws with seconds remaining to give Murray a 40-30 halftime edge.
With 4:26 left in the third, DJ Quarles came up with a steal and scored and drew a foul. The free throw was no good, but Quarles tracked down his own miss and put it back to cut the lead to 4 at 44-40. Back-to-back 3-pointers by McGowan tied the game at 46, and the teams were knotted at 50-50 after three quarters.
Will Bryan drove and scored to open the final quarter and give the Blazers their first lead of the game at 52-50. A Crump pull-up stretched the lead to 9 with 4:52 to play, before Tandy put an exclamation point on the victory with a breakaway dunk with just over a minute left.
Ra’Vichael Strickland scored 24 for the Tigers to lead all scorers, followed by Utley with 18, 13 in the first quarter. Grant Whitaker finished with 11 points and 5 assists.
Tandy’s 21 paced the Blazers, followed by McGowan with 17 points, including 5/8 from behind the 3-point line. TaQuan Hollowell shot 4/5 from the field for 12 points to go with a team-high 6 rebounds.