Dublin…Well, there’s a big difference between day and night. So it was with the Pulaski Co. Cougars boy’s basketball team in this game versus William Byrd.

The Cougars offense almost became null and void in the second half as they scored only 20 points the whole half and only four points the last 5:20 of the game as they lost to William Byrd 62-54. It was the lowest point output for the Cougars since their game at Radford back on December 22, 2017. It was the third lowest points scored in the16 games they have played.

Beside the Cougars futility on offense, the Terriers (6-11) were a lot better as they scored almost one-third of their second half points from the free throw line. Terrell Smith led the Terriers with 26 points as he hit 13 of 14 free throws. The only other scorer in double figures for them was Landon Johnson as he hit four three-pointers for 12 points.

The Cougars (10-6) put four players into double figures as Dre Grubb had 12, Braeden Blevins, C C Grubb and James Jackson all had 10 points apiece.

“We were selfish the second half. We didn’t take good shots and we didn’t take care of the basketball,” said a very disappointed Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. “We scored what, 26 points in the second quarter and then we only score 20 the entire second half. Byrd’s defense was the same the second half as they started the game with. We made them come out of that in the second quarter, but we just struggled the whole second half.” When told the score was 52-50 Byrd with 5:20 left in the game after Kade Akers three-pointer and you only scored four points rest of the game, Coach Hart remarked, “We were just terrible on shot selection. We had three or four possessions to tie or go ahead and didn’t get the job done. Just terrible on offense the whole second half! “

The Cougars found themselves down 16-8 after the first quarter as they started extremely slow. They found themselves down by 11 points early in the second quarter put fought their way back to take a 34-32 lead into intermission. They had their biggest lead of the game 40-32 with 3:45 to go in the third quarter only to see Byrd go on a 9-1 run to tie the game at 41 all and Byrd went up 44-43 going into final stanza.

The Terriers outscored the Cougars 18-9 from the charity stripe in the game with most of that coming late to salt the game away. As the Cougars just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. The Cougars also saw starting forward Benjamin Poe go down early in the first quarter with a badly sprained ankle. He was seen with a walking boot and crutches leaving the gym after the game. The loss also hurt the Cougars in Region D of the playoffs standings.

The Cougar junior varsity lost their second straight game as the young Terriers 44-41 defeated them. Jeffrey Williams led Wm. Byrd with 12 points. The Cougars got 16 from Hayden Gray. Luke Russell finished with nine. The Cougar junior varsity record is now 11-4.

Pulaski Co. now will travel to Roanoke to take on the Patriots of Patrick Henry Friday night. Junior varsity starts at 5:30 and varsity around 7:00 pm.

 

 

Wm. Byrd 16 16 12 18-62

Pul. Co. 8 26 9 11-54

 

 

WB – T. Smith 26, Johnson 12, Livingstone 4, Adams 5, Seymour 9, C. Smith 2, Cruff 4

 

PC – D. Grubb 12, Jackson 10, Blevins 10, C. Grubb 10, Robertson 3, Poe 2, Akers 6, Reinhardt 1

 

 

3 PT. Goals – WB – 6-(Johnson 4, Seymore, T. Smith), PC – 7- ( D. Grubb 3, Akers 2, Blevins, C. Grubb)

 

 

Total FGs – WB- 19, PC – 19

 

FTs – WB – 18-23, PC – 9 of 16

 

Total Fouls – WB – 18, PC – 18

 

Fouled Out – WB – Adams, C. Smith

 

Technicals- None