Fourth quarter shooting woes defeat Cougars
By RODNEY YOUNG
Patriot Publishing
When you go over five minutes in the fourth quarter and miss eight of your last nine shots you generally are going to lose.
Blacksburg defeated the visiting Pulaski County Cougars on Thursday, 57-48.
The Bruins led the Cougars 47-41 after three quarters, but the Cougars would get a four -point play from Justus Hash to cut their deficit to 47-45 with five minutes and thirty seconds left in the game.
That would be the last bucket by the Cougars until they hit another basket with 24 seconds left. They had gone 5:06 without a score and had missed eight of nine shots.
Cougar head coach Anthony Akers said, “You can’t go over five minutes and miss eight of your nine shots and win. It’s disappointing and we had good looks at the basket.”
Blacksburg was led in scoring by Will Ferrell with 20 points. Paul Distler and Jon Joyce both chipped in with 11 points each. They shot 16 foul shots to the Cougars five.
Pulaski County (1-7, 0-2) got 16 points from Hash. Jalere Harlow had 10 and Tootie O’Dell finished with eight.
The Cougars had trouble scoring against Blacksburg’s two-three zone. They had a lot of open shots, but the ball wouldn’t go through the net. They committed a season-low nine turnovers. They hit seven three’s in the first half, but in the fourth quarter they couldn’t buy a field goal for over five minutes.
Pulaski County will be back in action Friday, December 27 at the Fort Chiswell – First Community Bank Christmas tourney. They play at 4 pm against East Wilkes (NC) High school.
PC – 16 13 12 7- 48
B-burg 17 14 16 10 – 57
Scoring – PC – Hash 16, Harlow 10, O’Dell 8, O’Neal 4. Merchant 4, Turner 4, Lawrence 2, B-burg – Ferrell 20, Distler 11, Joyce 11, Byrd 5, Byun 5, Price 3, West 2
3-PT. Goals – PC – 10 (Hash 5, Harlow 2, O’Dell 2. Turner) , B-burg – 8- ( Joyce 3, Ferrell 3, Byrd, Distler)
Total FG’s – PC – 18, B-burg – 20
FT’s – PC 2-5, B-burg 9-16
Total Fouls – PC – 15, B-burg – 9
Fouled Out- None
Technicals -None