Cougars down Daviess County 55-52 in OT

hunter-vs-daviess
hunter-vs-daviess

The Cougar basketball team won for the seventh time in its last eight games Tuesday night at Daviess County with a thrilling, 55-52 win in overtime. With the win, the Cougars evened their season record at 14-14 heading into Friday’s final game at Hancock County.

The Cougars were on fire in the first half behind Spencer Sharp, who hit his first five three-point attempts on his way to a team-high 25 points. The Cougars led 19-8 at the end of the first period. When Sharp opened the second period with his fourth three, the Cougars held their largest lead of the night, 14 points at 22-8. They led by nine points, 32-23 at the half.

An 8-0 Daviess County run in the third quarter cut the Cougar lead to five points, 38-33 with 2:41 left, but the Cougar led by seven, 43-36 heading into the final period of play.

Grayson County managed to score just two points in the third quarter, allowing the Panthers to come back and tie the score at 45-45 with 1:17 left in regulation. The Cougars then held for the last shot, calling a timeout with 12.3 seconds remaining to set up a play. Sharp had a shot at the buzzer that just slid off the rim, sending the game into the overtime.

Nolan Shartzer opened the scoring in the extra period with back-to-back jumpers to give the Cougars the lead for good at 49-45. Dakota Walden, who led all scorers in the game with 28 points, scored on a lay-in with 1:47 left to cut the lead to two points, but Q’Daryius McHenry put back his own miss with 1:26 left to make it a four-point game again.

Walden hit two free throws with 41.8 seconds left, but Sharp added two charity tosses with 31.2 seconds left and the Cougars led by four again, 53-49.

Walden scored and was fouled with 23.1 seconds left and his made free throw cut the lead to just a single point, 53-52, but Sharp hit a short jumper with 17 seconds left to make it a three-point game, 55-52.

On the ensuing Daviess County possession, Shartzer came up with a huge steal and was fouled with 3.9 seconds left, sending him to the line in the bonus with the chance to ice the game. But he missed the first free throw, and Daviess County called a timeout with 3.9 still showing on the clock.

The Panthers got the ball inbounds to Walden, who brought the ball just past half-court and let fly with a three-point attempt that would have tied the game and sent it to a second overtime, but the shot clanged off the side of the rim and the Cougars had their win.

McHenry scored 18 points for the Cougars, pulled down seven rebounds and added two assists and a pair of steals. Shartzer also had seven rebounds to go along with his eight points. He also led the team with four steals.

Josh Embry and Matthew Loughran both scored two points to complete the Cougar scoring.

By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com