Allen County-Scottsville’s boys came to Logan County for the Cougars’ first game of the season Tuesday after averaging 78 points an outing in their first three games. Coach Brad Bonds’ team would score only 43 points on this night.
Unfortunately for the home team, points 42 and 43 were backbreakers for the Cougars, turning a win into a gut-wrenching loss with less than half a second remaining in regulation. The Patriots won 43-42.
Senior Jax Cooper, a multi-sport standout and school leader, hit both free throws with 0:0.3 seconds showing on the clock to pull victory out of defeat from an AC-S perspective.
Senior guard Blake Wood had hit a 10-footer to give the Cougars their first lead in a quarter at 40-39. Cooper then made a steal and a basket with 2:15 remaining. That would be the Patriots’ final field goal.
Cougar star Anthony ‘Rooster’ Woodard—the number two ranked player in the Fourth Region---gave the Cougars the lead with a basket in the final two minutes, their last points.
Then came a Series of Unfortunate Events for the Cougars,
Cougar Zane Batten, who is a good shooter, missed the front end of a bonus with 35 seconds remaining. Allen County’s Cooper drew Batten’s fifth foul, but this time he missed the front of a bonus situation. Woodard got the ball but he and teammate Wood got their feet tangled, losing some time. The Cougars threw the ball away trying to get it to teammate Zak Del Rosal.
Woodard fouled out in trying to beat Cooper to the rebound that would lead to the winning free throws.
The Cougars were in contention all the way. They led 10-9 after a quarter when Jaden Sells threw a bounce pass from halfcourt to Woodard for an assist and then scored himself on a rebound.
It was 17-17 at the half on a goal by Allen County’s Mason Shirley, the number four ranked player in the region.
Third-quarter scoring seemed to come in threes. Logan’s Kamden Coursey put together a 3-point played when he was fouled on a mid-range bank shot. Reserve Cougar big man Jeffrey Taylor hit a surprise 3-pointer, and Shirley hit a couple of three-pointers, one at the buzzer which gave the Patriots a 34-33 lead going into the dramatic fourth quarter.
Rebounding proved to be a problem for Coach Nathan Thompson’s Cougars. They totaled only 17, led by Woodard with 6 and Landon Larson with 5.
Woodard scored 15, Coursey 10, Larson 6, Wood and Sells 4 each, and Taylor 3. Nathaniel Petrie and Chance Sweeney also played along with Del Rosal and Batten.
Shirley had 14, Cooper 11 and Tyler Ford 7 to lead the Patriots.