High school boys basketball: Cyprus remains perfect in Region 4 with clutch play in the fourth at West

In a game featuring 15 lead changes — including six in the fourth quarter — Cyprus’ execution was the difference in Friday’s key region showdown at West.

Thanks to some timely buckets, clutch offensive rebounds and four late free throws, the Panthers held off upset-minded West 61-56 to run its winning streak to 13 games and stay perfect in region play.

Alen Hadzialijagic scored eight of his team-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, including a go-ahead layup with exactly a minute remaining and then two free throws that iced the win with 23 seconds left.

“He’s just been solid, man. He’s been very consistent probably for the past 12, 13 games for us. He’s a helluva basketball player,” said Cyprus coach Tre Smith.

Hadzialijagic’s driving layup gave Cyprus the 57-56 lead shortly after West’s Elijah Albertson sank his sixth 3-points of the game to give West the one-point lead.

For Cyprus, Beckham Bayles chipped in with 11 points, with Koli Fosita adding 10 as the Pirates clinched at least a share of the Region 4 title on Friday despite two games remaining in league play.

Smith said his team has heard the noise about its soft schedule, but players have just focused on themselves and not concerned themselves with it.

“I’ve told these kids every day, ‘We’re great. We’re a good basketball team. It doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks about us or the schedule. I think we’re solid,’” said Smith, whose team improved to 17-3 with the win.

“We have a good group of kids. We’re a hungry group. We’re a hungry basketball team, and I think we can compete with anybody.”

Among the Pirates’ 17 wins this season was a 53-48 win over West last month, a game in which Cyprus trailed heading into the fourth quarter.

West made eight 3-pointers that night, and Smith knew containing the perimeter Friday needed to be better. Ironically enough it was worse, as West made 10 3-pointers on 45% shooting.

Albertson made six of them, finishing with a game-high 24 points.

“I think them being at home, it was a different comfort level for them, and they were comfortable and we let Eli get loose early and once one goes in for a good player like him, you know, the ball starts falling,” Smith said.

Albertson made three straight 3s in the first quarter, scoring the first 13 points for the Panthers.

Cyprus matched that with a trio of 3s in the first quarter and led 16-15 after one, and then 28-27 at the half. After the lead changed hands four times in the third quarter, Cyprus maintained that one-point cushion heading into the fourth, 41-40.

West’s Matthew Fox had the hot hand to start the fourth quarter, sinking back-to-back 3s to give the Panthers the 46-43 lead.

At the other of the floor, key offensive rebounds by Cyprus prevented West from building on that lead. On back-to-back possessions, West scored on putbacks to pull ahead 47-46 with 4:45 remaining.

The Pirates built on that momentum with back-to-back 3s by Bayles and Sam Ellsworth, extending the lead to 53-48 with 2:50 left in the game.

Smith said his players have performed well in those clutch situations all year.

“I think the biggest thing for me is we’ve been in those moments a lot through the course of the year. You just find a way. We’ve been very poised, controlled in most situations this year,” said Smith, whose team shot 47 percent from the field in the win.

Over the next 90 seconds, however, West matched that shot-making with an 8-2 run to reclaim the 56-55 lead on Albertson’s 3-pointer with 1:21 remaining.

West missed a good look at a go-ahead 3-pointer with about 35 seconds remaining, and with the shot clock turned off it was forced to foul.

The Panthers were too aggressive with that foul though, leading to an intentional foul call, and by the time they touched the ball again they were down five as Cyprus made all four foul shots.

With two games left in the regular season, Smith said his team will continue to tighten up defensively in preparation for the more difficult playoff games that await. His players will no doubt continue to have fun doing it.

“I’ve coached for 12 years, and this is one of my funnest groups I’ve ever been a part of, but they’re fun because they’re good kids,” Smith said. “They go to class, they get good grades, they’re in the gym. They love each other. There’s no animosity, there’s no jealousy.

“It could be Koli’s turn one night, could be Beckham’s turn one night, could be Alen’s turn one night. Our role players have done a helluva job hitting big shots in big moments. That’s what it’s about. It’s solid group.”