WADESBORO — Hosting your first tournament isn’t the time you want to come up short on the scoreboard, but Anson went into the locker room at halftime trailing by seven.
Anson coach Brandon Rains asked for his players to dig deep and pull out the victory to advance to the championship game.
They did as Anson rallied to pull out a 70-56 win over Buford (S.C.) Monday night in the nightcap of the Anson Invitational.
“I challenged them at halftime,” Rains said. “We didn’t wave a magic wand. We stayed within our system.”
The Yellowjackets used second-chance points to grab the lead in the first half. Rains became frustrated with his team’s lackluster effort on defense, leading to his halftime talk.
The Bearcats responded, outscoring the visitors 20-11 in the third quarter. Anson limited Buford in the final eight minutes.
“They would have someone flash high and then get the weak-side pass against us,” Rains said. “They outscored us on offensive rebounds. We focused on defensive rebounding and being more aggressive in our matchup zone.”
Taijon Robinson led the way for the Bearcats (3-4) with a game-high 22 points. Keenan Marshall and Mike Kirby chipped in with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Buford (5-4) was paced by Andruw Rollings’ 19 points. Christian Joplin added 15 and Justin Hayden netted eight.
Anson will return to action 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when it battles Richmond in the title tilt. The Raiders captured the first meeting between the two teams 92-49 on Dec. 9. Richmond advanced to the championship by cruising past Chesterfield 85-34.