The 8th-grade Cougar basketball team will be in the finals of the Green River Valley Conference Tournament following their 45-33 win over Breckinridge County in Thursday’s semi-final matchup at McLean County Middle School.
The Cougars will face either Hancock County or Muhlenberg North in the final at 7 p.m.
The Cougars never trailed in this game after scoring the first nine points. They maintained that nine-point advantage, 15-9, as the second period got under way.
Grayson County put together a 7-1 run that saw them take their largest lead of the half, 13 points at 22-9 with 1:10 left in the first half, which is how the first half ended.
The Tigers came out roaring in the third period, opening with a 7-2 run to cut the lead to eight points, 24-16 at the 4:55 mark. A three-pointer by Breck’s Eamon O’Donaghue with 14 seconds remaining in the third quarter cut the lead to just seven points, 33-26 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Cougars then put the game on ice by opening the final period of play on a 10-2 run to give them their largest lead of the night, 15 points at 43-28 with 1:36 left to play.
The margin of victory could have been substantially larger if not for some poor foul shooting. The Cougars went to the line 28 times on the night, but could manage to hit just 11 of the shots, a frigid 36 percent.
O’Donaghue led all scorers in the game with 18 points.
Nolan Hornbeck led the Cougars with 15 points and he pulled down five rebounds. River Blanton scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds before picking up his fourth foul with 27.8 seconds left in the third quarter. He sat out the entire fourth quarter.
Dillon Horn and Brayden Childress both finished with seven points, with Childress pulling down seven rebounds, and Horn adding five. Tayden Logsdon scored four points off the bench and Brayden Renfrow added three to complete the Cougar scoring.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
