By Stephen Henderson
The Patrick County High School Cougars took to the road last Tuesday night and lost to the George Washington of Danville Eagles 83-46.
However, the Cougars exacted revenge on the North Stokes Vikings Wednesday night and defeated them 53-46 after an earlier loss.
In Tuesday’s game at Danville, the Eagles pounded the Cougars in the first quarter, leading 24-4. The Cougars picked up their offense a bit better in the second quarter, but still allowed the Eagles a 47-17 lead.
The Cougars never could find their groove and ended the game down 83-46.
“The Eagles did a good job of pressuring us early and getting some good, quick shots. They were ahead 18-0 before we finally got a shot in,” Coach Andrew Terry said.
“We had a tough time making relatively easy shots early in the game. When you don’t take advantage of making easy shots, that kinda lead to us falling behind early,” he added.
“We came out in the second half and played much, much better,” he said. “We finally started finishing plays and hitting shots, and we played with them. We just couldn’t stop them in the second half,” he said.
“We didn’t have a lot of turnovers like we normally do against GW,” Terry said. “Our problem was giving up easy shots and giving up dribble drives,” he added.
The Cougars also gave up 17 offensive rebounds.
Leading scorer was Seth Scott with 13 points and Hunter Lawless with 11 points (three 3s in the third quarter).
The Cougars bounced back against North Stokes last Wednesday night, beating the Vikings 53-46.
The Cougars got off to a “hot” start, picking up a 7-0 lead early in the game.
“Our defense looked good, then we got complacent, got lazy on defense,” Terry said. “Our defense in the whole first half was really bad,” he added.
A variety of problems plagued the team. “We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do on our team concept of defense,” Terry said.
The score at the end of the first half was 24-21 with the Vikings in the lead.
“We turned it around in the second half, especially the fourth quarter with the best defense we played the whole game,” he said. “I told them if we kept up playing defense like we did late in the third quarter, we would win the game, and we did,” Terry said. “They responded well, closing out free throws (eight out of nine in the fourth quarter) and handling the ball well, especially by DeAndre Reynolds and Frankie LaComa,” Terry added.
DeAndre Reynolds led scorers with 12 points. RJ Hagwood added 10 and Hunter pulled down nine points.
The Cougars are 7-4 on the season. Last Friday’s game against Magna Vista has not been re-scheduled yet. The Cougars were slated to play at Blacksburg Monday night. They host Bassett Wednesday (tonight) and will travel to Martinsville Friday night.
