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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HELENA – The Helena Huskies bounced back from a tough 45-40 loss on Friday night to McAdory with a victory over a team they know well from their clashes in area play in years past.

Helena defeated the Briarwood Christian Lions 50-45 on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at Helena High School.

The two teams came out of the gate close to evenly matched on the offensive end. Briarwood found success with the deep ball, earning 3-pointers from Drew Mears, Eli Stubbs and Charlie Caldwell in the opening quarter.

Helena countered that with 3-pointers from Kevin Pinkard and Nate Ferguson and four points from Drew Davis, but the Huskies still trailed 14-13 at the end of the first quarter.

However, Helena grabbed the lead in another tight quarter that followed, going 5-for-6 from the free throw line to help complement field goals from Pinkard, Davis and Cash Gallahan.

That 5-for-6 performance was much better than Briarwood’s 2-for-8 stretch from the line in the second quarter, and the Huskies grabbed a 24-23 lead going into the halftime locker room.

Helena’s offense then flipped a switch in the third quarter and started to pull away.

Davis led the way with six points in the third to get into double figures, and Joseph King added four points as five different Huskies found the bottom of the net in the quarter.

Helena’s defense turned in its best performance of the game, holding Mears scoreless in the third after he scored 10 points in the first half and the Lions to just five points as a team.

As a result, the Huskies increased their lead from a slim single-point lead to a 15-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

Briarwood rallied back though, getting 3-pointers from Sam Canale, Tory Smith and Parker Jackson and multiple baskets from Brayden Robertson to score 17 points as a team.

Helena couldn’t match that offensive output but did enough to walk away with the five-point victory, scoring multiple times down the stretch while relying on the big third-quarter run to provide the difference.

Davis finished with 16 points to lead all scorers and King joined him in double figures with 13 points. Pinkard scored seven points, Gallahan posted six points and Ferguson added five points.

For the losing Lions, Mears scored 12 points, Canale had 10 points, Smith and Jackson each earned six points and Robertson secured five points.

Helena will have a six-day break before hosting Bibb County on Monday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. The Huskies won their previous meeting on Dec. 5 56-36.

Briarwood will gear up for two games in two days as it will host Montevallo on Friday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. and make the short trip to Indian Springs on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. Both are rematches of games the Lions won earlier in the season.