Boys Basketball: Harlan rallies to edge Brooks

Harlan coach Ervin Bryant has missed the past couple of games – and probably avoided some stress – due to a clogged artery

The Falcons came back and then barely held on to defeat Red-South foe Brooks 58-57 on Wednesday. This victory came on the heels of a last-second loss to Marist on Saturday.

``It’s real rough with him not being here,’’ Harlan assistant coach Cantrell Davis said of Bryant. ``He’s like a father to me. I’m going to make the call now and tell him we won by one.’’

Harlan (12-6, 4-2) trailed 53-45 before running off 13 unanswered points in a three-minute span. Deonte Johnson was the spark behind the resurgence.

The senior point guard found Torian Pearson, who scored nine points, alone in the corner for a pair of threes that were sandwiched around a trey of his own. He also added a layup to the spurt that gave the Falcons a 58-53 lead with 46 seconds left. Johnson scored all nine of his points in the second half.

``I told Torian to go to the corner and stay there and I would kick it out to him,’’ Johnson said. ``Coach told us at half that if we didn’t win this game, we were going back to the school to practice. So we closed it out.’’

Harlan almost faced a repeat performance of its Marist game down the stretch. Dwight Cunningham and William Gates Jr. scored buckets for Brooks (7-14, 3-5) to close the lead to the final score. After Anthony Knight missed the front end of a one-and-one with five seconds left, Erick Locke raced down the court with the rebound but his desperation runner came up short.

Brooks held the lead for the entire second half until the final Harlan run. The Eagles held their biggest lead 39-29 late in the third quarter. Cunningham was a force in the paint with 18 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots. Locke finished with 18 points and Gates, Jr. scored 11.

Knight tallied 12 points and 13 rebounds.

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