Alexandria outlasts Daleville to stay on late-season roll

Feb. 20—ALEXANDRIA — With sectional tournament play set to begin in one week, it is paramount teams are playing their best as the regular season winds down.

That may be the case for the Alexandria Tigers, who will host a sectional next week.

Carson Cuneo scored on the block with 40 seconds remaining, the 24th and final lead change of the game, part of a 15-point, 10-rebound performance from the Tigers senior, as Alexandria held off Daleville 71-69 Tuesday night in The Jungle on Garth Cone Court.

The result was the fifth straight win for Alexandria (13-9) with one regular season game — Friday at Taylor — to go while Daleville dropped its third straight to enter postseason play at 12-9.

Coming off an emotional home win over Frankton over the weekend, this victory also snapped a two-year losing spell to Daleville as Alex coach Marty Carroll looks ahead to a sectional opener in one week against Winchester.

"We had a huge win last night, and I told them that's the challenge tonight," he said. "Can you turn around and play. I thought we played pretty well tonight."

It was a tough loss for the Broncos as coach Ashley Fouch remains frustrated with her team's defense. The Broncos surrendered over 70 points for the second straight game and for the sixth time this season, lost the rebounding battle 34-31 to Alexandria and allowed four Tigers to score in double figures.

While Daleville forced seven Alexandria turnovers in the fourth quarter, it was only able to score three points off those miscues.

"That and another difference is that we missed 11 layups," Fouch said. "That's 22 points. We've got to close out a game."

As one can imagine in a tight game like this, the outcome came down to who made the winning plays late.

There were candidates on both sides of the battle, but Cuneo and freshman Mason Fuller came up big down the stretch for the Tigers.

After missing five of his first six free-throw attempts, Fuller converted on all five tries in the final quarter, including a pair to take a 65-63 lead.

But with just over a minute left, Daleville's Logan Leech made a 3-point shot to put the Broncos back on top at 66-65. Cuneo then scored off an inbounds play under the basket with 53.6 seconds left to put the Tigers on top to stay. Fuller then made two more free throws and scored on a breakaway layup after Cuneo grabbed a rebound and found the freshman sprinting toward the basket.

That score put the Tigers up 71-66 with 10 seconds left.

"He's just so athletic, and he's got a little bit of a mean streak in him," Carroll said of Fuller. "I think for him running the point, that's as big an improvement for us as anything else."

Fuller shared Alex scoring honors with senior Gabe McGuire, who had 16 points before fouling out, and Carson Hall added 13 points.

Daleville's Meryck Adams led all players with 19 points while Koleman Newsome added 17 points and eight rebounds, Noah Colvin scored 11 points with eight assists and Leech had 10 points.

The biggest lead for either team came in the second quarter when Hall found Bryson Eckler for a Tigers' layup and a 28-18 lead, prompting Fouch to call a timeout.

"It came down to us not pressuring their guards. That's what that timeout was about," she said. "It's getting up and playing obnoxious defense, and we just weren't doing it. At some point, the coach gets angry. They turned it around, they took off and that's what I needed them to do to get back in the game. I just wish we would have started earlier and done it for the rest of the game."

The Broncos responded.

Colvin and Adams hit two 3-point baskets each down the stretch as Daleville closed the first half on a 14-2 run to erase the 10-point deficit and take a 32-30 lead into halftime.

The Broncos will play in Class 1A Sectional 55 at Tri-Central in next Friday's semifinal round and will face arch-rival Cowan at 6 p.m. They lost to the Blackhawks by three points earlier in the season.

"They've gotten better, and so have we," Fouch said. "It's going to be a good game. It usually is between us and Cowan."

After visiting Taylor, the Tigers will host Winchester on Feb. 27 in the first round of 2A Sectional 40.

"They're a pretty good team," Carroll said. "We've started some film. I think they're going to be a problem, but I think we're going to be a problem, too."

In the junior varsity contest, Hunter Suchyna scored 19 points — including the go-ahead basket in the closing seconds — as the Broncos handed the Tigers a 56-52 defeat. Mekhi Snyder added 16 points for Daleville while Alex's Kynzen Studebaker led all players with 24 points.

Contact Rob Hunt at rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com or 765-640-4886.