The young basketball season for the Logan County Cougars has been characterized by close encounters. Five of their 11 games have been decided by three or fewer points at the end of regulation.
The Cougars earned the first two of those nail-biters, winning 59-52 at Warren East in overtime in the opener and edging visiting Ohio County 82-80 in the third game. In between they knocked off traditional regional power Russell County 86-73.
It looked like the problems that have plagued past Logan County teams for many years—including jealousy, players listening to people in the crowd instead of their coaches, and an every-man-for-himself attitude—had gone away.
Things changed, though, when the Cougars let a big lead slip away against a Franklin-Simpson team. This Franklin team is not as talented or experienced as many Wildcat squads we have known in the past, and this was just a week after some players had finished their football season in the state finals. The game ended with Logan missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied it.
Two other losses have ended with a missed three-pointer, 64-63 to South Warren and 78-75 in double overtime to Franklin-Simpson again in a tournament at Warren East.
On the other hand, Coach Lonnie Mason’s team has played well in other games, most notably in a 77-63 romp over previously undefeated Todd Central and 65-43 over Greenwood. They also played well in a 68-54 loss to a strong Louisville Butler team.
The Cougars finished the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule with a 5-6 record.
LCHS sends game films to Google Krossover to be analyzed and converted into statistics. The following is a compilation of those statistics by The LoJo. No statistics are available from a loss to Daviess County. These totals and averages for the eight players who see the most action are from the other 10 games:
Scoring Average: Austin Rayno 16.1, Kelby Epley 12.8, Tommy Krohn 10.5, Mykal Hampton 9.2, Ethan Smock 3.6, Jonathan Furlow 2.9, Third Bell 2.5, Caden McKinnis 2.4
Shooting Percentage: McKinnis 68.8 (11/16),Krohn 58.6 (41/70) Rayno 52.7 (59/112), Smock 42.9 (12/28), Bell 40.0 (8/20), Furlow 39.1 (9/23), Epley 38.6 (39/101), Hampton 36.6 (30/82)
2-Point Shooting Percentage: McKinnis 68.8 (11/16), Krohn 64.3 (36/56), Rayno 59.4 (47/79), Bell 53.8 (7/13), Smock 50.0 (7/14), Hampton 41.9 (26/62), Epley 37.9 (11/29), Furlow 36.8 (7/19)
3-Point Shooting Percentage: Furlow 50.0 (2/4), Epley 39.9 (28/72), Rayno 36.4 (12/33), Krohn 35.7 (5/14), Smock 27.8 (5/18), Hampton 20.0 (4/2), Bell 14.3 (1/7), McKinnis 0/0
Free Throw Percentage: Hampton 77.8 (28/36), Furlow 75.0 (9/12), Epley 75.9 (22/29), Bell 66.7 (8/12), Rayno 66.0 (31/47), Smock 52.9 (7/13), Krohn 48.6 (18/37), McKinnis 25.0 (2/8)
Field Goals Hit: Rayno 59, Krohn 41, Epley 39, Hampton 30, Smock 12, McKinnis 11, Furlow 9, Bell 8
3-Pointers Hit: Epley 28, Rayno 12, Krohn and Smock 5 each, Hampton 4, Furlow 2, Bell 1, McKinnis 0
Free Throws Hit: Rayno 31, Hampton 28, Epley 22, Krohn 18, Furlow 9, Bell 8, Smock 7, McKinnis 2
Rebounds: Krohn 55, Hampton 53, Rayno 33, Epley 26; Smock, Furlow and McKinnis 21 each, Bell 5
Assists: Rayno 38, Hampton 36, Epley 25, Bell 14, Krohn 13, Furlow 9, Smock 8, McKinnis 7
Steals: Epley 18, Rayno 10, Krohn 9, Bell 8, Hampton 6, Furlow and Smock 4 each, McKinnis 2
Charges Taken: Hampton 8, Krohn 4, Rayno and Furlow 3 each, Epley and Bell 1 each, McKinnis and Smock 0 each
Turnovers: Furlow 1, McKinnis 8, Krohn 11, Smock and Bell 13 each, Epley 19, Rayno 23, Hampton 26
Other teams members include Matthew Mullins, Nathaniel Vick, Reggie Powell, Dalton Thompson, Brady Griggs, Dylan Basham, and Brayden Campbell.