Christian County tipped off their week on the hardwood with a visit to Logan County in both girls and boys action.
It was all Logan County for three of the four halves of action. Luckily, the Colonels would come up with quite a second half performance to send everyone home on a positive note; more on that later.
It began with the Lady Colonels and Lady Cougars in what we thought would be the better of the two games on the evening, Logan County had other plans.
The Lady Cougars stormed out of the gate with a 20-10 run and lead at the end of the first quarter. They would proceed to never look back ultimately winning 62-38.
On a night where star guard Gracie Borders was honored for joining the 1,000 point club at Logan County, she actually went down with an apparent ankle issue in the third quarter, and the Lady Cougars still continued to poor it on.
The Lady Colonels struggled offensively. After scoring thirty plus points against UHA, Anaysia Bagwell had just eleven, never able to get into a rhythm. Lazarie Daniel also had eleven, and was the player of the game as it seemed at times she was the only one who was able to form any kind of consistency.
Mind you it was not all bad, or all the Lady Colonels fault. Credit to Logan County, especially Nora Epley, who hit several deep and contested three’s. Not to mention the game had more than twenty-five combined fouls in the second half; neither team really ever got into a flow.
Christian County rebounded fairly well, just unlike their opponent, shots were not falling. Easy put backs and put ups, lay-ups, just seemed to catch a little to much iron or not enough backboard for a large portion of the game. Of course, hometown roll was a thing as many Logan County shots did not have the same issues.
Between games it was senior night for Logan County and the first half of the boys game showed it. The Cougars were amped up and carrying over the benefits of the girls successes, while the Colonels were flat and a little out of sync.
Mind you on top of the extended between game festivities and the lengthy girls game, the Colonels were also playing without the services of George Sanders, Trey Blanton, JaSean Riley, AND Derrell Bateman. The starting lineup was Prince Northington, Jordan Miles, KJ Vaughn, Jonathan Hart Cox, and Artavius Levon Moses.
The thought was you wanted a spark or a guy, and someone hefty with experience to come off the bench first, so cue Breland Morrison not technically starting.
With all that going on it was certainly an uphill battle initially for Christian County.
Luckily, a few things were realized in the first half. One, Jordan Miles was going to shoulder a heavy burden, and do it with some flare. Seventeen first half points led all scorers in the game, and it wasn’t close. Second, the Cougars were going to struggle with the athleticism and ball pressure of the Colonels, mostly due to their youth. Finally, three, Logan County would not keep hitting threes at the same clip they were. Of the Cougars ten made threes, seven came in the first half and all three in the second were by one man, as opposed to three different guys making, at least, one in the first half.
At the half the score sat at 38-31 in favor of the Cougars, but it was a play at the buzzer that really seemed to turn the tide.
Brady Hinton made a beautiful rainbow of a three from the right side at the buzzer to end the half and that should have made it 38-29 and sent Logan County to the locker room in a hyped up frenzy. However, Hinton, possibly in response to some light heckling from the Colonel bench, as he made the shot right in front of them, decided to turn around and give them the business. What he did not know was that when he whipped around it would be right into the face of Colonel Head Coach Toby Miles.
Coach Miles took it in stride, but the referee standing right there could not ignore it and had to give Hinton the technical foul, two shots for the Colonels.
You can guess who went to the line to shoot them; Jordan Miles.
Miles was already, according to my calculations, a perfect four for four from the charity stripe and had fifteen points. When he proceeded to stay perfect at the line, making both and giving himself seventeen points, it seemed to invigorate the Colonels and slightly deflate the Cougars who now held just a seven point lead.
It was obvious in the second half not just who the better team was, but also who had the momentum.
After scoring nearly forty in half number one, the Colonels ball pressure amped up to eleven and the Cougars managed just twenty-seven second half points. Christian County scored forty-four.
Everyone began to get involved with defense leading to easy offense and rebounds turning into transition points.
Prime example; with less than thirty seconds remaining and Logan County inbounding the Colonels trailed by five in the third quarter. On the ensuing two inbounds by the Cougars, Christian County caused a turnover in the back court and nailed easy open lay-ups to all of a sudden be down just a point at the end of three.
Logan County and the Cougar faithful were shell shocked.
By the games end the Colonels at won by double digits, 75-65, and three other players had joined Miles in scoring double-digits.
Morrison had fifteen, Vaughn had fourteen, and Northington had twelve, all to supplement Miles twenty-seven.
It was a night to remember going forward as it showed a significant depth impact for the Colonels and proved they can win in a hostile environment, with circumstances working against them.
They will need to do it again, and the Lady Colonels will need to bounce back, Thursday as both head down to Post and take on Fort Campbell on the road.
Keep in mind, UHA minus several players just took on the Falcons and was only able to win by three. Colonels will look to have less struggles still without four of their best players.