Cougars lose in overtime to Abingdon
By RODNEY YOUNG
Patriot Publishing
Playing in the Cougar Den on Wednesday night, the Cougars played hard but got outscored 13-7 in overtime to lose a heartbreaker to the visiting Abingdon Falcons, 66-60.
Pulaski County (1-2) was down the whole first half as they trailed 15-14 after the first quarter and went into halftime down, 34-27.
At the start of the second half the Cougars went into a 2-3 zone that slowed down the taller Falcons. They would go on a 13-0 run to start the third quarter to take the lead, 40-34. They would hold the Falcons to just seven third quarter points and took a 44-41 lead into the final quarter.
The two teams would exchange leads in the fourth quarter and with the game tied at 53-all, the Cougars had the ball with 14 seconds to go. However, the home team would commit a badly timed turnover giving the ball to Abingdon.
With time ticking away, the Cougars would steal the ball for a last-second game-winning shot. The Cougars, however, would miss the shot, but a held ball call with 1.1 seconds showing gave them possession again and they called a timeout.
After the timeout they would get an open jump shot to win, but the ball would hit the rim and fall away, sending the game into overtime.
Abingdon would take control in the overtime period as Evan Denton would stroke two huge three-pointers. It would be his only three’s of the game and just their second and third for the entire game. The Falcons would shoot 14 foul shots in the four-minute overtime. They shot 35 foul shots to the Cougars’ 15 for the game.
Cougar head coach Anthony Akers said Pulaski County should have won the contest.
“We should have won the game in regulation,” Akers said. “We made some fundamental mistakes and didn’t hit a couple open shots. We made a couple changes at halftime that turned the game around and we had a couple chances to win the game. The guys played hard tonight and we just didn’t hit the big shot at the end.”
Pulaski County placed three players in double-digits. Braxton Merchant led the Cougars in scoring with 18. Justus Hash had 13, while Jalere Harlow chipped in with 11 points.
Abingdon got a game-high 19 from Brayden Wallace, 16 from 6 – 6 center Blake Ketron as Evan Denton tossed in 14.
The Cougar junior varsity would pull out a win over the young Falcons, 47-44. Ade Jackson and Abijah Hendricks both tallied 12 points. Abingdon got a game-high 24 from Eli Phipps.
PC 14 13 17 9 7- 60
Abingdon 15 19 7 12 13- 66
Scoring – PC – Merchant 18, Hash 13, Harlow 11, Blevins 8, Sweet 6, Nottingham 2, Carrasco 2, Abingdon- Ketron 16, Denton 14, Wallace 19, Large 3, Waters 3, Allen 6, Dillow 4, Draper 1
3- PT. Goals – PC – 7( Hash 3, Blevins 2, Harlow, Merchant), Abingdon – 3 ( Wallace 2,Large)
Total FG’s – PC – 23, Abingdon- 23
Total FT’s – PC – 7-15, Abingdon 17-35
Total Fouls – PC – 24, Abingdon – 15
Fouled Out– PC – Harlow
Technicals – None