Blacksburg…The Cougars traveled to Blacksburg and played the Bruins at the Blacksburg Middle School due to gymnastics meet at the high school gym. Once again Pulaski Co. had trouble making shots and lost 68-48 to the Bruins.

It seems that when the Cougars have trouble scoring it also affects all aspects of their game. They have trouble guarding their opponents and rebounding the basketball.

Blacksburg 7-6 got 19 points from guard Antonio Hodson, 17 from big man Grant Johnston and 13 from guard Luc Roccaforte. Jacob Verbrugge also pumped in 10 to place the fourth Bruin into double figures.

Pulaski Co. fell behind early as they surrendered 26 points in the opening period and never recovered. They found themselves down 42-25 at half and seemed to lose any will to battle and scrap as they were down 58 – 32 going into the fourth quarter. The Cougars would manage only 16 points total in the second and third quarters. The only Cougar in double figures was CC Grubb with 18 points.

A very disheartened Cougar head coach Andrew Hart remarked,” We not playing good enough to win. We not shooting the ball well and we not defending either. That’s a bad combination.” He then added,” We are not responding to adversity. We miss a few shots and our heads drop and don’t play defense and don’t rebound. “

The season is going to get a lot tougher for this group is they don’t start playing with some urgency. Some one has to step up and pick this team up. Coach Hart said at halftime,” Guys I can put different players in and I can tell you what needs to be done but you as a team needs to step up and perform, and play with urgency.”

The Cougar still have road games at Hidden Valley, Cave Spring and Patrick Henry just to name the top three teams left on the schedule.

Pulaski Co. Cougar junior varsity blew a 14-point halftime advantage and lost in overtime to the young Bruins 68-64. Dre Grubb and Julian Black both pumped in 18 points each and the Bruins got 20 points from Brian Mitchell in the win. The Bruins shot 34 foul shots in the contest to the Cougars (9-6) 13. They outscored the Cougars 29 to 8 from the foul line.

Pulaski Co. will play Wm. Byrd Wednesday night in the Cougar Den, with the JV contest tipping at 5:30 and varsity around 7 pm. It’s one of only three games left in the Cougar Den this season.

 

 

P Co. 16 9 7 15-48

B-Burg 26 16 16 10-68

 

 

PC (9-6) – C Grubb 18, B.Grubb 8, Reinhardt 3, O’Dell 2, Blankenship 3, Gray 5, Robertson 6, Roberson 2

 

B-Burg (7-6) – A.Hudson 19, Roccaforte 13, Johnston 17, Verbrugge 10, Cianelli 4, VanGilder 1, J.Rob Hudson 4

 

3 Pt. Goals – PC – 5-(C.Grubb 3, Blankenship, Gray), B-Burg -7-(A.Hudson5, Verbrugge 2)

 

Fouls – PC – 13, B-Burg – 11

 

Technicals – None

Cougars averaging 50.8 points per game, Opps. – Averaging 56.3 points per game

Name PPG APG RPG

C Grubb 14.5 2.8 7.0

L Robertson 10.0 2.5 2.6

B Grubb 9.3 1.1 3.6

B Roberson 7.8 1.0 3.1

A. Reinhardt 5.1 0.7 2.8

B. Blevins 2.4 0.8 2.3

T. Blankenship 1.4 1.3 1.5

H. Gray 1.5 0.3 0.8

N. O’Dell 1.3 0.2 0.7

B . Poe 0.3 0.0 0.5

C. Kirtner 0.0 0.3 0.5

T.Redd 0.4 0.1 0.2

Salem…When you play only one good quarter out of four the results are going to be bad. The Pulaski Co. Cougars got that bad result as they lost to a two win only Salem team 62-50.

The Cougars started off slowly falling behind 19-8 in the first five minutes and found themselves behind 22-12 after the opening period. They found themselves in the second quarter taking a 27-26 lead but a bucket by Salem in the last second gave them a 28-27 lead into intermission.

The Cougars could never get the lead again and were down 42-39 after three as they kept giving up basically layup after layup. The third quarter also saw he Cougar bench getting a technical called on them for what seemed like for what the crowd said on a bad call that went against them.

After that the game seemed to even go more toward the Salem Spartans as they stretched their lead out to double figures in the fourth quarter.

Pulaski Co. 9-5 most of the game seemed lethargic and disinterested. They play bad defense as the Spartans continued to drive to the rim and got layups. The Cougars on defense took not a single charge as they just got beat trying to guard the Spartans.

“ We weren’t ready to play tonight,” said a very disappointed Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. “ We were lackluster on defense, we didn’t shoot well and we didn’t do the little things that we have to do to compete. We are very inconsistent and on the road we just not doing things we need to do to play well.” Coach Hart then added,” When you play defense like we did tonight you are going to lose. We played well the second quarter and that was it. “

Salem (3-11) got 23 points from Baylor Mabes as he either stroked three’s or would drive uncontested for two. Isaiah Donaldson had 15 and Shane Simpson produced 10.

Cougars got 15 points from C C Grubb and 14 from Logan Robertson. The loss was embarrassing in that how do you beat a very athletic and talented Patrick Henry team and the loss to a two win team in Salem. This was another road woe loss for the Cougars as they have lost to a two win Christiansburg and three win Bassett teams all on the road.

The Cougar junior varsity playing perhaps one of their worse games of the season lost to the young Spartans 64-43. Salem got 25 points from Alex Blanchard and 13 from Bobby Pinello. The Cougars were led by Julian Black with 10 points and his teammates Hayden Gray and Dillon Porter chipped in with six. The JV team saw their record fall to 9-5.

Pulaski Co. will be in the Cougar Den Wednesday as they take on the Wm.Byrd Terriers. JV tips at 5:30 and varsity at 7pm.

 

 

Pul. Co. 12 15 12 11-50

Salem 22 6 14 20-62

 

 

 

Pul Co.- (9-5) – C Grubb 15, B.Grubb 7, Roberson 4, Robertson 14, Blevins 5, Reinhardt 5

 

Salem- (3-11) – Mabes 23, Donaldson 15, Dodd 3, Austin 7, Simpson 10, Tucker 4

 

3 Pt. Goals – PC- 5-(Robertson 3, B. Grubb, Blevins), Salem- 5-(Mabes 3, Austin, Simpson)

 

Fouls – PC- 14, Salem 15

 

Technicals – Cougar bench (fans?)