Dublin… Down 16 late in the third quarter, the Cougars fought their way back to within one, only to lose 56-55 to the Terriers of William Byrd.

The two teams had faced each other in Vinton earlier, and the Cougars hit a short jumper at the buzzer to win by one. This night the Terriers turned the tables in the Cougar Den.

CC Grubb hit six threes including four in a row in the third quarter as he helped carry the Cougars from 16 down to within three (43-46) after three quarters. Grubb had a game high 22 points, and senior point guard Isaac Poe added 17 for the Cougars.

Devon Kasey scored 15 for the winning Terriers, as the Cougars had no answer for the Byrd interior game. Damon Childress and Alex Fitch both chipped in with nine points each.

The Cougars had trouble with the interior and length of William Byrd as they went into intermission down 33-25. Byrd then went on a 12-4 run in the first five minutes of the third to take a commanding 45-29 lead. Cougar head coach used a timeout. After that timeout the Cougars then went on a 14-0 run to get the margin to 45-43 and were down 49-46 going into the fourth quarter.

The two teams then went into a drought as both teams saw shots rim out or turn the ball over. The Cougars (8-4), down 51-50 with 5:45 showing, had chance after chance to take the lead but didn’t. In fact they went six straight possessions without scoring a point. Two times they missed easy buckets. They missed two foul shots on one possession and missed two other shots and turned the ball over twice.

William Byrd wasn’t any more efficient as they hit only four free throws in that five minutes off play to go up 55-50, with 21 seconds left to in the game. Poe then drilled a three to make it 55-53 with just nine seconds to go.

After a Cougar foul, Byrd would hit one of two foul shots with six seconds to go, and the Cougars had possession. Poe would then drive to the bucket for a layup to make it 56-55, but the buzzer sounded before the Cougars could foul to end the game.

When asked what he said in that timeout and down 16 with three minutes to go in the third, Cougar head coach Andrew Hart said, “I told them we got to stop the bleeding. We got to pick up our game defensively and offensively.” Coach added, ”CC (Grubb) then stroked, what four three’s in row, and it really picked us up on the defensive end as well. We didn’t guard well the whole first half and their inside game bothered us.” Coach then said, ”We have to shot the ball well from outside for us to compete; we don’t have an interior presence.”

The Cougar junior varsity lost to the Terriers 46-35. Austin Reinhart gave the Cougars (4-8) a lift off the bench as he scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds. The Terriers were led by Terrell Smith’s 16 and Cullen Livingstone’s eight points.

Pulaski Cougars will hit the road tonight as they travel to Carroll Co. and then go to Christiansburg Thursday. Junior varsity contest will tip at 5:30 and varsity at 7pm both Tuesday at Carroll Co. and Thursday at Christiansburg.

 

 

 

WB 20 13 13 10-56

PC 15 10 18 12-55

 

 

Scoring- WB- Culicerto 5, Wheeler 6, Olsen 6, Dippel 6, Childress 9, Fitch 9, Kasey 15

 

– PC- Grubb 22, Poe 17, Garcia 9, Blevins 5, Spencer 2

 

3 – Pt. Goals- WB- 8- ( Fitch 3, Olsen 2, Childress 2, Kasey)

– PC- 10- ( Grubb 6, Poe 3, Garcia )

 

 

Fouls – WB- 14, PC- 21

Technicals- None