The middle school Cougars played host to the St. Mary’s Angels on Monday, and they took both games from the Whitesville school.
In the opener, the seventh-graders closed out the first half with 13 unanswered points and led by 14 at the half, but had to withstand a big St. Mary’s comeback that saw the Angels close to within three points of the lead with under a minute to play before finally prevailing, 38-33.
In the eighth-grade game, the Cougars also led by 14 points in the first half only to see the Angels come back on them. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Cougars led by just three points, but pulled away down the stretch to win 53-47.
SEVENTH-GRADE GAME
The Cougars had difficulty handling the full-court zone press the Angels were using and committed seven turnovers in the first quarter. Still, they managed to hold a one-point lead, 7-6 heading into the second period.
As play began in the second, Cougar coach Kevin Johnston changed tactics, having his guards trap the ball-handler as the ball was brought across the timeline. This caused problems for the Angels, and they began turning the ball over.
Still leading by a single point, 9-8 with 4:08 left in the first half, the Cougars went on a 13-0 run and led 22-8 at the halftime break. When Dillon Horn opened the third quarter with a rebound basket, the Cougars held their largest lead of the evening, 16 points at 24-8.
But the Angels would not quit and began cutting into the lead. By the end of the third quarter, they had cut their deficit in half and trailed 31-23. When they opened the final period with back-to-back baskets, the lead had been cut to four, 31-27.
In the game’s final minute, the Cougars were sent to the foul line four times with opportunities to ice the game, but could not do it, missing front ends of 1-and-1 situations twice and missing two double-bonus opportunities.
That allowed the Angels to hang around, and when Gavin Howard buried a three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining, the lead was down to three, 36-33, and it was anyone’s ballgame.
The Angels had an opportunity to cut the lead even further when Nolan Mills went to the line with 17 seconds left, but he missed both shots.
Brayden Childress went to the line for the Cougars with 12 seconds left, but again, missed both shots. But River Blanton was Johnny-on-the-spot for the Cougars, grabbing the offensive board and putting it back in to save the victory.
Nolan Hornbeck led the Cougars with 10 points and he added seven rebounds. Brayden Renfrow finished with nine points and added three steals. Blanton scored seven points and led the Cougars on the glass with eight rebounds.
Horn finished with five points, Jerron Salazar had four and Tayden Logsdon had three to complete the scoring.
EIGHTH-GRADE GAME
The Angels led twice in the early going, the last time coming at 4-2 with 4:53 left in the first period. Timmy Hanover’s three-pointer at the 3:56 mark gave the Cougars a 5-4 lead and they never trailed again. The Cougars got back-to-back baskets from Zeb Bratcher and Jonathan Henning at the end of the period to give Grayson County a seven-point advantage, 17-10 at the start of the second quarter.
Six straight Cougar points in the second period saw the Cougars holding their largest lead of the night, 14 points at 28-14 with 3:31 left, but the Angels would not fold and were able to cut the lead to nine at the half, 35-24.
When Keegan Sharp hit a 10-foot runner with 2:29 remaining in the third period, the Cougars led by eight points, 38-30, but the Angels closed it out with five straight and trailed by just three points, 38-35 as play began in the fourth quarter.
Bratcher opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer to put the Cougars back up by six, and that seemed to settle things down. The Angels were never able to get closer than five points the rest of the way and the Cougars took the win.
Landon Huff scored 14 points to lead the Angel effort. Bratcher led all scorers with 16 points. Hanover joined him in double figures with 10 points, and led the team with four steals.
Hunter Tomes had a big night for the Cougars, just missing a double-double performance with eight points and 10 rebounds. Chandler McCrady added seven points, while Jaylen Smith had six. Three players, Sharp, Henning and Owen Bratcher all scored two points to close out the scoring.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
Grayson Payton was surrounded after pulling
down an offensive rebound in the 8th grade game.
Zeb Bratcher flew to the hoop for two of his
game-high 16 points.
Jonathan Henning scored for the Cougars
in the first period.
