Hidden Valley Titans Throttle Cougars
By RODNEY YOUNG
Patriot Publishing
Playing their last regular season game on the road at Hidden Valley Thursday night, the Cougars ran into a buzz saw in the second half as they got thumped, 67-43.
Pulaski County was just down 18-14 after the first quarter as Jalere Harlow scored nine of the Cougars’ 14 quarter points.
The second quarter saw the start of the downfall, however, as the Cougars at one point committed five straight turnovers without getting up a shot. Coach Anthony Akers had to use a timeout to calm things down.
The Cougars would go into halftime down to the Titans, 32-25 and the Cougars had committed 11 turnovers in the first half.
The third quarter would see Hidden Valley go on a 17-4 run early in the third quarter and it led to Cougars having to call two full timeouts.
Pulaski County would commit 10 more turnovers in the third quarter alone, scoring just 10 points. They would be outscored 20-10 in the third and would fall behind 52-35 going into the final period.
The final quarter wouldn’t be any better as they would commit six more turnovers and score just eight points as the Titans would score 15.
“We committed too many unforced turnovers. We were just down by seven at halftime. The second half though, things went downhill in a hurry,” said Akers.
Hidden Valley placed three players in double figures, with Senior Wyatt Clarke leading them with 22. Senior Steele Torrance finished with 18 and Senior Chase Gattuso scored 13. The Titans (18-4) would enjoy their Senior Night at the expense of the visiting Cougars.
Pulaski County (7-15, 3-9) got 17 points from Harlow as he was the only Cougar to hit double digits. Justus Hash scored eight and Braxton Merchant added six.
The final regular season game wasn’t pretty for the visiting Cougars. Some bad stats included committing a season-high 27 turnovers. They hit just 11 percent of their shots from behind the three-point arc. They hit only 30 percent of their shots from the floor and got out-rebounded. This was their sixth consecutive loss. Five of the losses were by double figures, while the other loss was by nine points. They were outscored 35-18 in Thursday night’s second half. They were trounced 49- 29 after the first period. The second half of this game wasn’t pretty basketball by a senior laden team. The second half saw them almost commit as many turnovers as points scored – 18 points to 16 turnovers in 16 minutes of play. Hidden Valley drove the ball at will and got pretty much whatever they wanted offensively.
The Cougar JV team defeated Hidden Valley, 41-37. The Junior Varsity finished their season with a 15-7 record. Ade Jackson tallied 19 points in the win. Braylen Anderson had six, Abijah Hendricks five and Logan Fleenor had four points.
The Cougar staff will have to see if they can get this varsity squad turned around quick as they have at least one more game to play in the Class 3 Region D playoffs. The playoffs start Tuesday, February 24 with the Cougars facing more than likely Cave Spring at Cave Spring. Tip time for the game is to be announced.
PC – 14 11 10 8- 43
HV – 18 14 20 15-67
Scoring– PC – Harlow 17, Hash 8, Merchant 6, Sweet 4, Nottingham 4, Carrasco 2, Blevins 2, HV – Clarke 22, Torrence 18, Gattuso 13, Molina 6,James 4, Hamilton 2, Cobb 2
3-PT. Goals – PC – 2 ( Harlow, Hash), HV – 6 ( Gattuso 3, Torrence 2, James )
Total FG’s – PC – 20, HV – 26
FT’s – PC – 1-4, HV – 9-12
Total Fouls– PC – 15, HV – 11
Fouled Out- PC – Sweet, HV – None
Technicals– None