The Cougar varsity improved to 1-1 on the early season with a 58-43 win over the Frederick Fraize Aces Saturday evening in Cloverport. The JV squad went scoreless in an overtime period as they suffered a 37-29 loss to fall to 0-2.
VARSITY GAME
A Bailey Logsdon three-pointer at the 4:16 mark of the first period capped an early 9-0 start for the Cougars. Ben Harness stopped the Cougar run with a free throw at the 3:25 mark, but the Cougars then scored the final eight points of the period to take a commanding, 17-1 lead heading into the second quarter.
When Cameron Wells buried a 15-footer with 2:10 left in the first half, the Cougars held their largest lead of the first half, 23 points at 32-9. Grayson County led by 19 points, 33-14 at the half.
After trading baskets for the first six minutes of the third quarter, the Aces scored five straight to cut their deficit to 17 points, 42-25 with 2.4 seconds left in the period, but Logsdon beat the buzzer with a long three-pointer and the Cougars took a 20-point lead, 45-25 into the fourth quarter.
Grayson County increased its lead to as many as 21 points in the final period before the Aces closed out the game on an 8-2 run to cut the final margin to 15 points. Bret McCoy led the Aces with 10 points.
Wells led the Cougars in scoring with 12 points. Logsdon and Logan Majors both scored 11 points and Majors led the team on the glass with nine rebounds. Nolan Shartzer scored seven points and he added four rebounds and two assists.
Caleb Ray finished with six points and he added three rebounds and three assists. Freshman Miles Hornbeck gave good minutes off the bench for the Cougars, scoring five points. Josh Embry and Spencer Cannon both scored three points to complete the Grayson County scoring.
JV GAME
This was a close game from start to finish with neither team leading by more than six points until the overtime period. The Cougars led 6-5 at the start of the second period. The score was tied twice and there were two lead changes in the second quarter before the Aces managed to take a two-point lead, 15-13 at the break.
The Aces still led by two points before a Cameron Wells six-footer tied things at 19-19 with 1:03 left in the third quarter and that’s the way the fourth quarter began.
After Wells buried a 15-footer, Cloverport’s Garrett Bradley tied it once more with 4:41 left in regulation. The Cougars then got back-to-back threes from Spencer Cannon and Wells and with 4:19 left they held their largest lead of the game, six points at 27-21.
The Aces pulled back to within two points of the lead, 27-25 following two free throws by Ben Carr at the 2:35 mark. Cannon followed with a lay-in with 2:28 left to make it a four-point lead, 29-25. Those would be the last points the Cougars would score the rest of the game.
Xander Jennings scored at 2:18 to make it a two-point game, and Devin Ferris hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 29-28 with 1:34 left.
Bradley went to the line with 15 seconds left and hit 1-of-2 to tie things once more at 29-29. Freshman Miles Hornbeck was fouled with six-tenths of a second left in regulation and went to the line needing to make just one shot to win the game. His first shot looked like a good one, but it spun in and out. His second shot missed as well, and the game went into overtime.
Grayson County then missed all six shots they managed to get in the overtime period and the Aces scored eight to grab the win.
Wells led all scorers with 12 points, and Wyatt Schultz scored nine. Cannon finished with five points, Matthew Loughran had two, and J. J. Tomes closed out the scoring with one point.
By Don Brown, Local Sports
Reach Don at donbrown@k105.com
Nolan Shartzer battled a pair of Cloverport
defenders during first-half action.
Caleb Ray put up a short jumper
in the first quarter.
Josh Embry shot free throws in the first period.
