By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

SYLACAUGA–The Helena boys basketball season came to an end on Tuesday, Feb. 16, as the Huskies were knocked out in the Class 5A Central-Sub Regional game at the hands of the Sylacauga Aggies 70-56.

After being upset in the Class 5A Area 7 Championship game, Helena drew a tough matchup in facing the Class 5A Area 8 Champion Aggies on the road.

In a fast paced first quarter, both teams made runs but it was the Aggies who led 18-15 after the first eight minutes of play.

In the second quarter, the Huskies struggled with turnovers and the momentum shifted when Sylacauga’s Antwane Cook nailed a long three-pointer with less than two minutes left in the half to put the Aggies up by 10. Sylacauga would take a 32-23 lead into the half.

In the third quarter, the Huskies cut the Aggies lead to 41-37 with two minutes left but Sylacauga responded and closed the half on a 6-0 run to go up 47-39 heading into the final quarter.

The Huskies had no answer for the down low presence of Sylacauga’s Malik Crawford who finished as the games leading scorer with 18 points and the Aggies had four players finish with double-digit points.

The final quarter consisted of heavy free throw shooting and the Aggies pulled away for a 14-point win. Sylacauga head coach Will Copeland was relieved to get the victory.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games with a lot of good teams so when we played another good team we knew we didn’t need to panic and had to handle the pressure,” said Copeland. “We watched film on them and we knew how solid they were playing going in and got upset in the first round and we knew we had a good solid ball club. It was a real privilege for us to win this game.”

With a roster filled heavily with seniors, Helena head coach Chris Laatsch was disappointed with losing but was thankful for the way his seniors left a mark on the program.

“I believe you’re only good as your seniors and you can go as far as your seniors will take you,” said Laatsch. “These guys are unbelievable from the standpoint of not just production on the floor, but they’re character guys. Our program is better because of having character men like them and they’re great leaders. I wish we could’ve gone further for them because they deserve that but we ran into a good team tonight.”

Helena’s Paul Brown finished with 16 points to lead the Huskies.