Middle School boys sweep visiting South Warren

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The middle school boys basketball teams picked up a pair of good wins Thursday evening at Cougar Gym as they defeated the visiting South Warren Spartans. The seventh-graders got big scoring performances from Taydon Logsdon and Mason Cariel as they defeated the Spartans 51-38. The eighth-graders got scoring from eight players as they won 51-35.

SEVENTH-GRADE GAME

The seventh-grade team trailed just once in this game, 5-4 with 2:32 left in the first period. They then outscored the Spartans 9-5 the rest of the period to lead 13-9 heading into the second quarter.

The Cougars still led by four, 15-11 at the 4:55 mark of the second period when they scored seven unanswered points to take at 22-11 lead with 1:19 left in the first half. They led by 11 points, 25-14 at the half.

The Cougars then outscored the Spartans 15-9 in the third period to lead by 17 points, 40-23, as the fourth quarter began. The Spartans were able to shave off four points of their deficit in the fourth quarter, but it was not nearly enough to change the outcome.

South Warren’s Conner Cobb led the Spartans with 14 points.

Logsdon led all scorers with 24 points, including four shots from behind the arc. Cariel also hit four threes and finished with 20 points.

Jeren Vanmeter scored four points, while Houston Brooks had two. Haydon Robinson and Grayson Chaffins both scored one point to round out the scoring.

EIGHTH-GRADE GAME

The Spartans hit three of their four total three-pointers in the first period and led 13-9 heading into the second quarter.

Trailing 17-11 at the 3:11 mark of the second period, the Cougars scored six straight to tie it at 17 with 54.6 seconds left in the half. Tyler Roberts hit 1-of-2 at the line with four seconds left that gave the Spartans a one-point advantage, 18-17 at halftime.

When the Cougars opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run to lead 25-18, it looked as though they were going to run off and hide, but the Spartans clawed back with a 10-0 run of their own to lead 27-25 with 57 seconds left in the period.

Nolan Hornback’s lay-in with 40 seconds remaining tied the score 27-27 as the teams headed into the final period of play.

South’s Joaquin Pineyura hit a 15-footer at the start of the fourth quarter to give his team a 29-27 lead, which would turn out to be the visitor’s final lead of the game. The Cougars responded with a 14-0 run to lead 41-29, and the game was pretty much decided.

Hornback and River Blanton led the Cougars in scoring with 12 points apiece. Hornback had a very frustrating evening in the early going as he had good shot after good shot from close-in around the basket somehow not go through the nets. He would have had an easy 20-point game had some of those shots fallen.

Braydon Childress finished with eight points, Dillon Horn had six, while Michael Wood and Taydon Logsdon had four points apiece. Braydon Renfrow had three points, and Camden Brothers added two to complete the Cougar scoring.

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