Dublin…Playing in front of a very big and loud crowd, the Cougars had the game ripe for the picking. Then a couple huge and somewhat questionable calls saw the Pulaski Co. Cougars one point lead turned into a Radford Bobcat 9-0 win to put the game away in the last two minutes. The state’s second ranked Radford Bobcats (12-0) pulled out a 77-68 hard fought win over the Cougars. The game featured back and forth, field goal answering and intense affair between the rivals that are separated by Memorial Bridge.
Up 65-64 with 2:30 showing on the clock, the Cougars had a big play that went against them turning into a four point play for the Bobcats that really decided the game.
A screen play for Radford junior star point guard Quinton Morton -Robertson came off a screen at the top of the key that looked like a moving screen that was called a foul on the Cougars as he drilled the three pointer and was sent to the line for a point swing that put Radford 68-64. Then after a missed Cougar shot, freshman Cam Cormany would drill another three pointer and it a 72 -65 , game over match point. Cormany would drill four three-pointers in the stretch run of the fourth quarter and finished with 22. Morton-Robertson led the Bobcats with a game and team high 31. He drilled five threes for the game and Radford fished updrilling 13 three-pointers. Most of the time when a team hits that many three’s, they won’t shoot as many foul shots. That wasn’t the case in this game as they shot 26 foul shots as compared to the Cougars 12. They outscored Pulaski Co. by 10 points at the charity stripe.
Pulaski Co. coming off a physical overtime win on Friday over Cave Spring played very well for the four quarters against Radford, while the Bobcats had Friday night off.
“I thought we competed real well tonight against a very good well coached team,” said Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. “They (Radford) made a couple big plays the last couple minutes. I thought our guys played extremely well after coming off a very tough overtime win from last night. It was very intense, answering a three-point bucket with a three-point bucket. Then one team would hit a short jumper for two and the other team would answer with their own bucket.” Coach Hart then said, ”Braeden( Blevins) played perhaps his best game.“
Radford head coach Rick Cormany commented, “That’s the strongest performance against us that we have had in a long time. I think both teams will and did get better from tonight’s game.” Coach Cormany then said, “I told Coach Hart that’s his team has really improved from the first time we faced them. It was a great game to sit and watch. It’s what a good high school basketball game is about. Back and forth and answering each other.”
The Cougars (7-5) took a 21-17 lead after the opening period and were up 36-29 at intermission. The Bobcats would outscore the Cougars 19-11 to take a 48-47 advantage heading to the final quarter.
The junior varsity contest saw littlest Cougar Hayden Gray pump in 26 points as he stroked seven three’s to lead them to a convincing 66-41 thumping. The young Cougars are now 8-2 on the season. Beside Gray’s 26, Luke Russell had 13 and Dillon Porter chipped in with 11. The Bobcats got seven points from Justice Marshall, six apiece from Kamaree Tanner and Brad Acosta.
Radford 17 12 19 29-77
Pul. Co. 21 15 11 21- 68
Radford – Morton-Robertson 31, Prioleau 9, Cormany 22, Edwards 11, Phillips 4
Pul.Co. – Akers 8, Grubb 22, Jackson 2, Blevins 14, Reinhardt 4, Poe 5, Robertson 13
3 PT. Goals – Radford 13-(Morton-Robertson 5, Cormany 6, Edwards 2), Pulaski Co. -8-(Grubb 3, Robertson 3, Akers 2)
Total FGs – Radford – 22 , Pul. Co. – 22
FTs – Radford 20 of 26, Pul. Co. 10 of 12
Total Fouls – Radford – 12 , Pul. Co. 22
Fouled Out- Pul. Co. – Robertson
Technicals – None