The Selma Times-Journal

BIRMINGHAM &8212; There are players that beat opponents, and then there are players that happen to opponents.

Frankie Sullivan happened to Barbour County Wednesday night &8212; much the same way a natural disaster happens to an unsuspecting town.

Despite playing most of the game in foul trouble, Sullivan led a comeback and scored an unprecedented 51 points to help the Bobcats (28-1) beat Barbour County 81-69.

Sullivan&8217;s point tally was a record for a 2A state championship game, and it came at the right time.

Barbour County&8217;s collapse was almost catastrophic. The Jaguars (30-4) had Hatch &8212; a team that went ranked No. 1 throughout the season &8212; by the neck for three-fourths of the game. The Jags held a 43-27 lead at halftime, and then succumbed to the Hatch press in the fourth quarter.

Devondrick Richardson led Barbour in scoring with 20 points, followed by Terrence Blakely with 15 and Courtavious Dorsey with 14.

The Jags could do almost nothing wrong in the first half. They only shot 38 percent from the field, but held Hatch to 22 percent shooting.

Sullivan went to the bench for the last 2 1-2 minutes of the second quarter and also missed the beginning of the fourth.

It was then that Rodney Scott, who scored 10 points, took control with the team&8217;s leader helpless on the sidelines. He scored five straight points to cut the Barbour&8217;s lead to 56-50 with 5:59 left in the game. He added a 3-pointer later that made it a 58-56 contest.

The win makes three straight titles for the team, 10 in the history of the program and five for Sullivan.