Logan County’s basketball teams, who host the 13th District Tournament beginning Monday, gained momentum going into postseason action Thursday by knocking off host Greenwood’s teams by identical 63-59 scores.
After Megan Lindsey provided the winning points in the final seconds, senior classmate Landon Stratton scored 26 points to lead the Cougars to a win over the Gators. Daily News sportswriter Michael Compton says this is Logan’s first win at Greenwood since 1992.
Stratton scored 21 of his points in the second half. He was 11 of 20 from the field and hit a pair of 3-pointers. Fellow senior Clint Knight added 10 points for Coach Lonnie Mason’s winners.
Kaleb Coursey, who has been playing more and more as the season has progressed, hit the clinching free throws with 8.6 seconds remaining.
Greenwood led 30-27 at halftime and went up by five on a pair of free throws, before Logan County used a 15-5 run to take a 42-37 lead. The Gators scored the final six points of the third quarter to regain the advantage, before the Cougars took control in the fourth quarter. Logan hit 8 of 12 field goal attempts in the final period
The score was tied 44-44 with 5:46 remaining when Ben Wright's goal gave Logan the lead for keeps. His basket ignited a 10-3 run that saw the Cougars build a 54-47 lead.
Greenwood pulled within two points three times in the final minutes, before Coursey hit the pair of free throws.
Wright and Tucker Baldwin supported Stratton and Wright with 8 points each while Taylor Blakemore was the leading rebounder with 7. Point guard Garrison Rosser came up with 6 rebounds while J.R. Morrow had 3 steals and joined Rosser, Blakemore, Baldwin and Wright with 2 assists each.
Dylan Dewitt led Coach Jason Stonebreaker’s Gators with 23 points while Homer Sewell had 11 and Jonathan Lewis 7. Greenwood dominated the boards 41-29 with Dewitt pulling down 8, Alex Fee 7, and Alex Schneller and Sewell 6 each.
The top-seeded Cougars will play number four seed Franklin-Simpson in the second district tournament game Monday. Coach Dee Spencer’s Wildcats have been playing better lately, beating Warren East and Glasgow in the season’s final week.
The LoJo
Not even the threat of a tornado could stop the Logan County Lady Cougars from winning. Greenwood’s Lauren Maupin had hit a bucket with 23 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 59-59 to bring her total to 23 points. Logan coach Finley Woodard called time out to set up a play with 16.8 seconds. That’s when officials stopped play for about 10 minutes because of the stormy weather, giving Woodard even longer to come up with the winning play.
When the Lady Cougars inbounded the ball, they got it to Maegann Hardison, who had hit six 3-pointers, but she found Lindsey, who hit a 10-footer along the baseline to put Logan up with 10 seconds. Lindsey then made a steal, drew a foul, and hit a pair of free throws to seal the 63-59 win.
Lindsey, who had also given the Lady Cougars a 58-56 lead with 2:00 showing, finished with 9 points with Logan getting 7 points each from Kapreshia Powell and Deja Thompson, who hit a pair of 3-pointers.
The Lady Cougars dominated the boards 45-36 with Lindsey totaling 9, Taleia Mason and Powell pulling down 8 each, Katelyn Jones 7 and Brooke Barnes 6. Powell had 4 assists and Mason 3 while Hardison had an extraordinary steals total with 6.
Samantha Jackson scored 14 and Rose Mary Jackson 12 for Coach Todd Tolbert’s Lady Cougars.
After top-seeded Franklin plays Coach Justin McClellan’s Russellville Lady Panthers at 6:30 Monday, the Lady Cougars will try to beat Todd Central for the third time at 6:30 Tuesday. The boys game Tuesday will match Russellville and Todd Central.