Cougars lose to Hidden Valley, 56-54

cougar pawBy RODNEY YOUNG

Patriot Publishing

ROANOKE – The long and frustrating season continued for the Cougars as they traveled to Hidden Valley and once again lost a heartbreaker, 56-54.

Down 47-35 going into the fourth quarter, the Cougars would go on a 14-0 run to take the lead at 49-47 with three minutes to go.

Hidden Valley would regain the lead with 2:45 to go when Steele Torrence hit a three and they never relinquished that lead.

Pulaski County (4-14, 1-8) would then miss an open jumper and the Titans would get fouled, with Riley Phillips hitting one of two foul shots.

The Cougars would then turn the ball over on their next possession and the Titans would be fouled again. This time they would hit both to go up, 53-49,

Chandler Hollins, however, hit a deep three to bring the Cougars back to within one at 53-52 with 50 seconds to go.

Hidden Valley, playing the keep away game, would get fouled and Torrence hit both of his free throws for a 55-52 advantage with under 20 seconds on the scoreboard.

After being fouled on his drive to the basket Chase Lawrence would hit his two freebies to bring the Cougars back to within one at 55-54 with 12 seconds left.

The Cougars would then foul Wyatt Clarke sending him to the line where he missed the first, but made the second foul shot. The Cougars would get the final shot, but Hollins’ 35-footer was blocked as the horn sounded to end the game.

“I’m sure proud of the guys for having the grit and determination to not give up. We were down 13 (47-34) just before the third quarter ended. So we actually scored 15 straight points on one of the top teams in the district,” said Anthony Akers, Cougar head coach. He then added, “Several of our games this year we’ve shown such toughness when being down. I count that as a victory despite the final score.”

The loss for the Cougars is their fifth in a row. They have five games remaining. Three of those are against two of the top teams in the River Ridge District and one against 12-3 Floyd County. It’s a tough schedule and it’s not going to get any easier.

The Cougars played this game without senior point guard Tootie O’Dell who was lost for the rest of the season with a knee injury.

The Cougars got 12 points from Justus Hash, 10 from Chase Lawrence and 10 from Jalere Harlow.

Hidden Valley got a game-high 13 points from Wynn Womeldorf, 12 apiece from Torrence and  Clarke. Womeldorf tallied 11 of his points in the third quarter.

The Cougar JV squad ended their losing ways as they defeated the young Titans, 55-37. Caleb Cregger had 18 points and Boone Blevins finished with 15.

 

PC – 9  11  15  19-54

HV-  8  21  18   9 -56

 

Scoring- PC – Lawrence 10, Harlow 10,  Turner 9, Hash 12, Sweet 5, Hollins 5, O’Neal 2, Carrasco 1, HV –  W. Womeldorf 13, Torrence 12, Clark 12, Cooper 6, N. Womeldorf 5, Nichols 5, Phillips 3

 

3-PT. Goals –   PC – 7 (Hash 3, Turner, Lawrence, Sweet, Hollins), HV – 6 (Torence 2, Nichols, W. Womeldorf, N. Womeldorf, Clarke)

 

Total FG’s – PC – 21, HV – 22

 

FT’s – PC – 5-11, HV – 6-12

 

Fouls – PC – 16, HV – 15

 

Fouled Out – None

 

Technicals – None