With the time running down in the first half Saturday morning, the Iberia Rangers were scrambling for one last shot.
Up stepped Kobe Halley.
"When your 6-foot-5 post guy drills a 3-pointer from about four feet behind the line, I like that," Rangers coach Nick Voss said after Iberia topped the Fulton Hornets 63-48 in the River Region Credit Union Shootout at Fleming Fieldhouse. "That's when we kind of figured it was our day, let's keep this rolling."
Voss didn't mind it was Halley that took the final shot.
"He can shoot a little bit, now I want most of his shots in the paint," Voss said. "He has the green light to shoot it and he needed to because the clock was about to run out."
The shot capped a big first half for the Rangers, who led 40-19 at the break. Voss attributed the good start to the Rangers executing their game plan.
"We contested shots and kept them out of the paint defensively, and we did a good job rebounding," he said.
Fulton scored the first basket Saturday and last led at 3-2 a little more than a minute into the game. The Rangers then went on a 5-0 run to take the lead and were up 19-11 at the end of the first quarter.
Iberia opened the second quarter on a 10-3 run to take a 29-14 advantage with 6:30 to go before halftime. The Rangers then closed the half on a 9-0 run in the last four minutes to lead 40-19 at intermission.
The Rangers had just five turnovers in the first half.
"That number has averaged a lot higher this season," Voss said. "We have to be fundamentally sound to win games and we were in the first half."
The Rangers were 6-of-12 on 3-pointers in the first half, while the Hornets were 1-of-10 from distance.
"We shot the ball well and we needed it because they went on a run on the second half," Voss said. "We knew they weren't going to continue to miss shots."
At halftime, Voss said he stressed to his team the importance of the first four minutes of the third quarter. The Rangers came out and extended their advantage to as many as 25 points and took a 55-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
"We did what we needed to do to keep the lead and finish the ballgame," Voss said.
The 15-point final margin was as close as Fulton had been since the middle of the second quarter.
Iberia senior guard Zach Voss was selected as the game MVP, totaling 24 points and pulling down seven rebounds.
"He got some looks, we made some good passes to him," Nick Voss said.
Wade Bond added 12 points while pulling down a game-high nine rebounds for the Rangers.
Courtland Simmons and AJ Henderson had 14 points each to lead Fulton (3-3), who will host Boonville on Tuesday night. Tyler Sayler led the Hornets with six rebounds.
Iberia (5-1) will host Vienna on Tuesday night.