It was the best finish in the nine years Chilton County coach Donnie Hand has been taking his basketball teams to holiday tournaments, but it still wasn’t the way the Tigers wanted to end their appearance.

CCHS lost to Childersburg, 78-49, on Tuesday in the championship game of the Champion Sports Medicine Shootout hosted by Calera High School.

“This is the best we’ve done,” Hand said about his team’s second-place finish. “Tonight was just a bad way to end it.”

Childersburg controlled the contest from the opening tip—literally.

Kinnis Leonard tipped the jump ball to Ladavious Battle, who quickly passed it ahead to Jamison Cook for an easy two, and Childersburg (12-4) never looked back.

The tournament champions dared CCHS to shoot the outside shot by playing a sagging man defense, and the runners-up weren’t up to the challenge.

Chilton sank only one 3-pointer in 16 attempts.

And the Tigers weren’t much better at attacking the rim. They made four free throws in only eight attempts.

“We tried to press, we tried to trap…we just shot the ball terrible,” Hand said.

Josh Williams scored a team-high 16 points, and Grantland Karn was the only other Tiger in double figures with 10 points.

Darnell Spear led the rebounding effort with six boards, but Childersburg dominated in that aspect, also.

Childersburg led 24-4 after the first period of play. Chilton County cut the lead to 51-37 after the third quarter, but Childersburg responded by outscoring their foes 24-15 in the final frame.