Cougars fall in tournament championship game

cougar pawBy RODNEY YOUNG

Patriot Publishing

Pulaski County lost Monday night in the championship game of the First Community Bank/ Fort Chiswell Christmas Tournament to Carroll County, 50-46.

The Cougars got off to another slow start, finding themselves down out of the gate 13-4 and had to burn a timeout to settle things down. They battled back and were only down 21-17 after the opening period. Halftime saw them behind 30-26 and down 40-33 going into the final stanza.

They battled back again and closed the Carroll advantage to one, 47-46 with just under 20 seconds left.

Then a questionable call went against them as an intentional foul was called, sending the Cavaliers to the charity stripe for two shots and giving them possession of the ball.

After all that the Cougars found themselves down, 50-46 with just seven seconds left in the game. The Cougars’ last shot was from three point land that was short and the horn sounded ending the game.

Carroll County (9-0)  was led in scoring by Bryce Smoot with 17 points. Big man Cody Reece had 15 and Isaiah Easter scored 11, of which all came in the first quarter.

Pulaski County got 17 points from Jalere Harlow, nine from Tootie O’Dell and eight from Chandler Hollins.

In a very subdued locker room Cougar head coach Anthony Akers remarked, “What a hard fought game. Proud of the guys and how they battled. Two good teams playing hard, but this is a tough pill to swallow.”

The Cougars will be back in action Thursday to take on district foe, Hidden Valley, with the junior varsity contest starting at 4 pm. They then will travel to Floyd County High School for a 12 noon game Friday against Christiansburg in the annual Chance Harman Classic.

PC –   17   9   7   13 – 46

CC – 21   9   10   10 – 50

Scoring – PC – Harlow 17, O’Dell 9, Hollins 8, Sweet 6, Lawrence 2, O’Neal 2, Turner 2, CC – Bry. Smoot 17, Easter 11, Reece 15, Richardson 7,

3- PT. Goals – PC – 5 (Harlow 2, Hollins 2, O’Dell), CC – 2 (Richardson )

Total FG’s – PC – 19, CC – 17

FT’s – PC – 3-5, CC – 14-19

Total Fouls – PC – 17 , CC – 9

Fouled Out- None

Technicals – None