The Cougars won their first-round game against Bazzell Middle School 42-35, but fell to Glasgow 41-36 in the semi-final.
In both games, blown lay-ups played a key role. Against Bazzell, 10 missed bunnies kept the Cougars from routing the Patriots.
Against Glasgow, five missed lay-ups combined with 47 percent shooting from the foul line to cost them a victory against the undefeated Scotties.
BAZZELL
The Cougars took an early 8-2 lead on the Patriots, a feeder school for Allen-County-Scottsville. The Patriots pulled to within two points twice in the second period, but Grayson County closed the first half with a 10-4 run to lead by eight, 20-12 at the half.
That was much closer than it should have been as the Cougars missed seven shots right under the basket in the first half.
The Cougars expanded their lead to as many as 10 points in the third quarter, but the Patriots cut that margin in half, 30-25 as the teams began play in the fourth quarter.
Back-to-back baskets by Bazzell's Josh Jones and Tanner Reed opening the fourth brought the Patriots to within a point of the lead at 30-29, but Braxton Willims scored on a lay-up and was fouled with 4:16 left to play. His free throw made it a four-point margin at 33-29.
After Caleb Tuttle hit a bucket for Bazzell to cut it to two, Brady Clemons buried a 15-footer, then hit a pair of free-throws to make it 37-31 with 3:25 remaining.
Jones scored on a lay-up with 2:57 left to cut it back to four, but Clemons hit both shots in a bonus situation to make it six once again, 39-33 with 1:21 left to play.
Reed scored again with 1:11 left but that would be it for the Patriots. The Cougars hit three of six free throws down the stretch to make the final margin seven points.
Clemons led all scorers in the game with 23 points and added four rebounds.
Rance Whobrey scored eight points and shared the team lead in rebounds with seven. Jakob Clemons also had seven boards and scored four points for the Cougars.
Williams finished with three points, while Ethan Meredith and Zach Berry had two each to complete the scoring. Berry also had four boards.
GLASGOW
This was a nip-and-tuck game throughout, with five lead changes and five ties during the action.
The Scotties raced out to an early 7-2 lead following a Charlie Kirk lay-up at the 2:31 mark of the first quarter, but the Cougars scored the last four points of the period to trail by just a point. 7-6 heading into the second quarter.
Whobrey hit the first of his five three-pointers with 3:06 left in the half to tie the game for the first time at 13-13. Another Whobrey three with 1:47 left gave the Cougars their first lead of the day, 18-15.
A three by Glasgow's Parker Cash with 45 seconds left put the Scotties up by two, 20-18, but Whobrey drained another three with 28 seconds left that sent the Cougars into the break leading 21-20.
Whobrey hit two more threes in a third quarter that saw two more lead changes and two more ties before ending at 35-33 with the Cougars on top.
The Cougars missed a pair of opportunities at the start of the final period as both Whobrey and Brady Clemons missed sure lay-ups. Kirk followed with a lay-up to tie things at 35-35.
Neither team could score after that until the 2:29 mark when Glasgow's Hunter Bowles put his team in front for good 37-35 on two free-throws.
Berry hit one of two free throws with 1:20 remaining to make it a one-point game, but Kirk made it a three-point deficit with two charity tosses with 24 seconds left.
The Cougars called a timout, but missed on their last shot and Kirk scored on a lay-up as time ran out to make the final margin five points.
Missed free-throws also hurt the Cougar hopes. They hit just 7-of-15 from the line, 47 percent.
Bowles led the Scotties in scoring with 10 points.
Whobrey led the Cougars with 15, while Berry had eight. Jakob Clemons scored seven points and led the team in rebounding with 10 boards.
Brady Clemons added five points and Meredith had one to round out the scoring.
News-Gazette Sports Reporter
dbrown@gcnewsgazette.com
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