Christian County High School’s magical postseason run came to a cold-shooting end at the hands of Union County Wednesday night in the Boys’ Region 2 Basketball Tournament quarterfinals.
The Colonels struggled to find the basket in the second and third quarter and the Braves pulled away for a 62-45 victory at Madisonville-North Hopkins High School. The win was the first for Union County in the region tournament since 2018. The Braves (16-10) move on to play Madisonville, which defeated Livingston Central 80-63 in the first game on Wednesday.
Christian County ends its season at 8-23 despite 15 points from Na’Darien Rowe and 12 from Aiden Jesse.
Rowe’s shot from just beyond half-court at the first quarter buzzer gave Christian County a 17-15 advantage and Jesse’s first 3-pointer of the night at the beginning of the second quarter gave Christian County its largest lead at 20-15. But from that point on, scoring was difficult as the Colonels’ managed only five points the rest of the period and found themselves trailing 29-26 at the break.
It didn’t help the Colonels that starting point guard Josh Bridges suffered a hand injury in the opening minute of the game and had to go get his shooting hand taped up. He didn’t play much in the first half and played sparingly in the second half.
For the first 5:30 of the third quarter, the Colonels’ scoring woes continued as they managed only two points and they trailed 42-34 entering the final period.
Behind the play of Daishawn Curry, who scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half, the Braves were able to extend the lead to as many as 20 points late in the game.
Curry led the Braves with 20. Jaidyn Wilson had 14 of his 16 in the first half and Cameron Miller added 10 for Union County.
Score by Quarters:
Union County 15 14 13 20 – 62
Christian County 17 9 8 11 – 45
Individual Scoring:
UCHS (16-10) – Black 2, Curry 20, Johnson 5, Wilson 16, Miller 10, Rapier 9.
CCHS (8-23) – Acree 4, Wharton 4, Williams 2, Bridges 2, Rowe 15, Jesse 12, Stevenson 6.
3-Point Goals:
UCHS – Curry 2, Johnson, Wilson 2; CCHS – Rowe 2, Jesse 2.
Photo by Joe Wilson