74-52. The final score at HCA as they hosted Butler County on Thursday night.
That score is indicative of a good team, which Butler County is. However, it does not tell you have a good a game the Warriors played in so many ways.
For a half, and really three quarters, of basketball HCA fought and clawed and stayed with a very good Bears team. In the end, Butler County did what good teams can, they played great.
By no stretch would I call the Bears a great team. A team that will win a state title, or maybe even make the state tournament. Their two best players are sophomores, they are not always smart with the basketball and they are prone to fouling in excess.
However, teams with talent, and potential, sometimes live up to both. Thursday night Butler County did that.
Maybe more impressively, for three quarters it was neither Ty Price, nor Lawson Rice, the Bears two sophomore sensations, that gave HCA fits. It was the mid-range game from several lesser known players. Why? Because it was just one of those nights. They happen.
Now do not mishear me, plenty that Head Coach Matt McGowan and the Warriors need to work on. Better ball movement versus playing downhill isolationist basketball. Taking care of the ball, especially when they are being challenged full court physically. Rebounding, because they are undersized.
The boards is certainly where Lawson Rice did do some damage and as you would expect, when they needed a shot, Price found a way.
It was maybe the most complete game though that HCA has played. Plenty to work on, plenty of room to grow, but the team I saw Thursday night would have beat Hopkins County Central and/or Gordonsville, and probably would’ve been in single digits and possibly beat Trigg County especially in a rematch as they obviously played Trigg with a depleted roster very early in the year.
Butler County is good, but so is HCA. Thursday night the Bears just happened to be great, and the Warriors still played good.