Eagles 1 win shy of state

Another game.

Another exciting finish.

Another win for Hennessey.

The Eagles landed within one more victory of the state tournament when they knocked off No. 10 Carnegie 54-51 last Saturday in their 2A regional championship at Hinton.

Up a point with time running out, Hennessey denied Carnegie’s attempt at taking the lead.

The Wildcats pressured Hennessey on the ensuing inbounds play and Cooper Fuksa hit Bryan Villalobos with a long pass behind the defense.

Villalobos scored and Carnegie’s last-second 3-pointer missed, giving Hennessey the win.

“We probably should have pulled it out instead of taking that shot, but we’ll take the win,” said Hennessey coach Brady Page.

His sixth-ranked Eagles are 23-2 entering this weekend’s area championship.

They’ll play No. 17 Northeast at 8 p.m. Friday at the Pioneer Cellular Event Center on the campus of Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford.

The winner will advance to state. The loser gets another crack Saturday at 8 against the survivor of the consolation bracket.

Among those teams will be No. 2 Vanoss, which was beaten 54-43 by Northeast in their regional championship.

Also among them will be Carnegie, which outscored Hennessey in each of the final three quarters.

Fortunately for the Eagles, they got off to a 16-6 lead in the first quarter.

Four Hennessey starters scored in the quarter. The only one who didn’t was Villalobos.

However, he heated up and hit three 3-pointers over the next two quarters. His bucket late in the fourth was his only score of the fourth quarter.

He finished with 11 points.

Fuksa led the team with 13, all in the first half. He also nailed three treys.

Angel Rodriguez scored six of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and Hugo Rodriguez added 10 points.

Brandon Ramirez scored eight.

Hennessey is looking for its second straight trip to the state tournament and fourth trip since 2012.

The Eagles were qualifiers in last year’s 3A bracket.