WESTLAKE — The Barbe Bucs shook off a strong Hamilton Christian side Tuesday afternoon, picking up a 59-49 win to book a ticket to the championship game of the Lakeside Bank Holiday Classic.

The Bucs (4-0) will meet tournament host Westlake tonight at 8 p.m. The Rams defeated Vinton on Tuesday night for their spot in the championship.

“It always feels good to make it to the championship game in any tournament that you play in,” Barbe head coach Carl Klein said.

Barbe started their matchup with Hamilton (2-1) off with early buckets from Tyrone Stewart and Cameron Kocik to take the lead, but a strong finish to the quarter from sophomore point guard Kenan Fontenot and company put the Warriors in control 14-10 after the first eight minutes.

In the second quarter it was all Barbe after it started off on a 7-0 run thanks to an early basket from Kocik and five straight points from Stewart.

The Warriors struggled through the second frame, scoring just three points to enter halftime trailing 25-17.

“We picked up our defensive pressure and tried to go with more half-court trap,” Klein said. “We tried to force some turnovers and luckily we were able to go on a couple of runs there. We also knocked down some key free throws down the stretch.”

To start the third quarter, Hamilton came to life, utilizing a full-court press to start the half on a 8-2 run to eventually pull level with the Bucs. But they couldn’t keep the high-level pace for the entire quarter and Barbe strung together an 11-2 run to end the quarter with a 40-29 lead.

“I knew we weren’t conditioned enough to press them the whole game so I was waiting for the right moment to hit (Barbe) with it,” Hamilton head coach Dexter Washington said. “That got us back into the game. If a couple more things go our way this game could have gone either way so we fought hard and I’m very satisfied.”

Senior Devin Anderson came off of the bench for Barbe in the third quarter to ignite a spark that led to the Bucs run. He started it off with a three-pointer from the corner before parlaying a pair of steals into layups. He would finish with seven points and six steals while playing a majority of the second half.

“Devin has been that kind of guy since he started for us,” Klein said. “He just stepped off the football field on Friday and for him to come up big for us in these last two games is great. He adds a whole lot for us.”

In the fourth quarter the teams exchanged baskets throughout giving the Bucs the 10-point win despite a valiant late effort from Hamilton leading scorer Justin Bartie.

“I thought we played hard, but we are still a little rusty with 10 players just finishing up with football,” Washington said. “That’s not to take anything away from coach Klein because they did a great job today, but we are still a little behind in our conditioning and shooting. There were a few things that could have gone either way and unfortunately they didn’t go our way but we accept that.”

Stewart led the way for the Bucs with 20 points and five rebounds and center Steven Henderson added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Bartie finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds and five steals for the Warriors. Fontenot added 11 points and six rebounds while forward Brandon Blackwell finished with eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.(Kirk Meche/Special to the American Press)

Kirk Meche