By Stephen Henderson

In a week of games against powerhouse teams, the Patrick County High School Cougar basketball team suffered three big losses.

Last Tuesday, the Martinsville Bulldogs overwhelmed the Cougars 59-31. Thursday night, Magna Vista just did surpass the Cougars 47-43, and Friday, the Cougars traveled to Halifax County and lost 57-19.
In Tuesday’s game against Martinsville, the Cougars got off to a rough start. “We had a lot of turnovers in the first half of the game,” Coach Andrew Terry said. “We had 18 in the first half and 31 total,” he added.
According to Terry, the guards had a hard time handling the ball with the pressure from the Bulldogs. Martinsville took off to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter. The Bulldogs hit five three-pointers in the first half.
“We just didn’t move the ball as well as we did the first time we played them,” Terry said. “We just couldn’t hit anything. We were stagnant on offense and just couldn’t get the ball moving.”
Martinsville led 29-12 at the half. The Cougars began fighting back late in the game, but they were too far in the hole. The final score was 59-31.
Darius Hagwood led Cougar scorers with eight points; Matt Amos added seven and Brandon Hubbard scored five points.
Thursday night the Cougars traveled to Magna Vista to play the Warriors. “We played the same kind of game against Magna Vista, but we played them harder,” Terry said.
The Warriors came out hot, scoring three three-pointers and scored 22 points in the first quarter. The Cougars scored only 11 points in the first.
The Warriors cooled off in the second quarter, picking up only eight points while the Cougars scored 13, leaving the half score 30-27, Magna Vista.
“We settled down in the second half and got back into the game. We played well defensively. We played hard enough to win,” Terry said. “We got the ball back with 15 seconds left, down three points, and didn’t get a shot off,” he explained.
“We have had trouble with things like that a couple of times,” Terry said. “We have had a couple of close games like this where we get the ball and have a chance to make something happen, and we just can’t get the shot off,” said Terry. “That’s something we need to work on, but we don’t have a lot of practice days left. We play four more games in the next seven days.”
RJ Hagwood led the Cougars with 13. Brandon Hubbard added 11.
Friday, The Cougars traveled to Halifax to play the Comets and lost 57-19.
“We got off to a good start in the first period with Seth Scott hitting three three-pointers,” said Terry. “After that, we struggled to score,” he added.
The Comets then heated up, hitting six three-pointers in the first half.
“We missed a lot of easy shots inside and got in a hole from that point on,” Terry said.
The Cougars were trailing 20-11 at the end of the first quarter and fell to 31-13 at the half.
“After that we only scored six more points in the game and lost 57-19,” he explained.
“We have a lot of guys who are sick, and we’re just trying to get healthy and finish this final stretch out strong,” Terry said. “We had a good practice Saturday for the first time in a while and hopefully that will carry on into Monday’s game against Hidden Valley,” Terry said.
This week the Cougars hosted Hidden Valley Monday and host Abingdon tonight (Wednesday). Thursday, they travel to Tunstall.
The Cougars are now 8-11 on the season.