Pulaski Co. comeback fell short as they lost to Geo. Wythe 58-52 in the second round of the First Community Bank Tournament held at Fort Chiswell High school. The Cougars were led by Benjamin Poe with 17 points and Dillon Porter tossed in 11.
Geo. Wythe (7-0) got 24 points from Ty Farrow and 15 from Josh Reeves in the win. The Maroons were down 12-10 after the opening period but went up 16-12 and took a 26-23 lead into halftime. They held the lead until the Cougars went on a 10-0 run to go up 33-30 with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Geo. Wythe would go on a 14-4 run to take a 44-37 advantage after three quarters. They would stretch their lead to 10, 50-40 with 4:55 to go. The Cougars would then go on another run 12-4 to cut their deficit to four 54-52 with 30.3 seconds remaining in the game. They would miss a layup and turn the ball over and the Maroons would put the game on ice hitting four throws in the last 20 seconds.
” We made a nice comeback and played hard but we keep making bad plays the last three minutes of games, ” said Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. ” We didn’t make plays down the stretch and this the fourth game that we have done that. We probably are going to have to make some changes. We didn’t put the ball in the basket. ”
The Cougars (3-6) have now lost to a 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A school. You can say the Cougars can and have lost to anyone. They will now take on Graham for third place in the tournament. In other action, Radford ripped Graham 64-42 behind 22 points from Cam Cormany and 16 from Quinton Morton-Robertson. Graham got 12 points from Cam Allen.
Fort Chiswell downed Marion 77-57 as Kolton Sutphin knocked down 25 points. Siler Watson had 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Pioneers. Marion was led by Caleb Osborne 13 and Kyle Robinson’s 11 points.
Galax got 13 points each from Cade Ashworth and Matt Lundy as they beat Alleghany (NC) 53-46. Alleghany got 15 points from Julio Arroyo and 10 points each from Jared Foley and Ryan Sturgill.
GW- 10 16 18 14-58
PC – 12 11 14 15-52
GW- Farrow 24, Reeves 15, Mabe 7, Do. McMillian 2, Martin 2, Da. McMillian 4, Coe 4
PC- Poe 17, Porter 11, McCloud 8, Gray 5, Bourne 3, Russell 6, Miller 2
FG’s – GW – 19, PC- 21
3-Pt. Goals- GW- 3-( Farrow 2, Mabe ), PC – 3- ( Gray, Bourne, Russell )
FT’s – GW- 17-28, PC 7-13
Fouls- GW- 13, PC- 21