Dublin… Playing at a slower pace and with good defense, the Pulaski Co. Cougars hung on to defeat the Salem Spartans 39-35.

With the shooting, at times, as cold it was outside, the Cougars and Spartans played a tight contest. Pulaski Co. (11-4) matched their win total from all last season as CC Grubb led them with 15 points, and senior point guard Isaac Poe hit six of eight from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. Poe finished with 10 points.

Salem had trouble hitting from outside until the last four minutes in the game. They hit three downtown threes to put them right back in the game with under two minutes remaining. Oran Vukovic scored 10 points, all from inside the paint. Most of that came in the first half.

“I thought we played great defense tonight,” said Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. “We played much better post and interior defense the second half. They (Salem) hit three very long contested jumpers there late that made it a little to exciting.”

The Spartans (5-8) were held to single digits in scoring in each of the first three quarters. They tallied 14 in the fourth. Trevon Hill scored eight, and Shannon Davis contributed five, all in the last four minutes of the game.

Cougars got six points from Miguel Garcia and Noah Bradley came off the bench to score four.

Leading 27-21 going into the final period, the Cougars expanded that to 34-24 with four minutes to go. Davis and Amonte Pannell then hit a three and a two to cut the margin to five.

After Poe hit two ”freebies”, it was 36-29. Then Cam Spangler hit a three, Davis stroke a jumper and it 36-35 with just 1:27 to go. Poe then would hit three of four foul shots in the last twenty seconds to put the game into the W column for the Cougars.

The Cougar junior varsity lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the young Spartans 63-61. The Cougar JV had led by fifteen at intermission and thirteen going into the last quarter only to be tied up with three seconds to go in regulation. The final spoiled a scoring and shooting performance from Cougars’ Kellen Dalton. He finished the game with 30 points. He had 22 of the first 27 points for the Cougars as he stroked four threes and four twos in just over 12 minutes. Alex Akers, Jaylin Nowlin and Noah O’Dell all had eight points each. Aiden Britton had 17 for the Spartans.

Pulaski Co will be back in action Thursday night as they host the tall and talented Cave Spring Knights. Junior varsity starts at 5:30 and varsity at 7:00. The game, as noted, is scheduled for Thursday due to impending weather.

 

 

Salem 6 8 7 14-35

PC 11 9 7 12-39

 

Salem- Hill 8, Davis 5, Spangler 3, Mabes 1, Austin 2, Staples 2, Pannell 4, Vukovic 10

 

PC – Grubb 15, Spencer 2, Poe 10, Blevins 2, Garcia 6, Bradley 4

 

3 PT. Goals- S- 3-(Hill, Davis, Spangler), PC- 4-(Grubb 3, Garcia)

 

Fouls- S- 14, PC- 9

 

Fouled Out- None

 

Technicals- PC- Bench