After falling behind by as many as 11 points in the first half, the Cougar JVs put on a spirited comeback try that wound up being short as Whitesville Trinity took a 37-30 decision at Cougar Gym on Tuesday, January 15.

A conventional three-point play by Trinity's Caleb Payne with one second left in the first period gave Trinity a 14-5 lead as play began in the second period. When the Raider's Michael Hogan hit a 10-footer to open the second period, Whitesville held its largest lead of the game 16-5.

The Cougars began to come alive at that point and outscored the visitors 7-2 the rest of the way and cut the margin to six points, 18-12 at the half.

The Cougars came out ready to play at the beginning of the third quarter and put together an 8-2 run that saw the score knotted at 20-20 at the 2:44 mark following a Gavin Logsdon layup.

Whitesville called a timeout to try and halt the Cougar run and it seemed to have a calming effect on the Raiders as they came out and scored the next six points to take charge once again. The quarter ended with the Cougars trailing the Raiders 28-21.

Josh Cooper got the adrenaline pumping for the Cougar fans as the fourth quarter began as he connected on a three-pointer to cut the lead to four, 28-24, but that was as close as the Cougars would get the rest of the way.

Payne led all scorers in the game with 17 points and Hogan had 13 for the Raiders. Jawan Wilson led the Cougars in scoring with 10 points, while Cooper had eight, Chris Elmore had six, Logsdon finished with four and Travis Lacefield had two to complete the Cougar scoring.