The on-court woes of the Cougar basketball team continued last Tuesday evening as the visiting Meade County Green Waves handed them a disheartening 61-43 defeat at Cougar Gym.
Meade County had been having a nightmarish year themselves, coming into Tuesday’s contest with a record of 7-17, but against the Cougars looked capable of beating anyone.
The Waves are not a particularly big team, but they are quick and aggressive and just plain outhustled the Cougars in all aspects of the game all evening.
It was a frustrating first half for the Cougars as the first five shots they made were three-pointers, but they trailed by seven at that point. They finished the first half hitting seven threes, but trailed by five, 36-31 at the half.
The second half turned out to be disastrous for the Cougars as they scored just three points in the third quarter and just 12 for the entire second half as the Waves ran away with the game.
Meade County opened the game by scoring the first seven points before Lane Rackley hit a three-pointer to get the Cougars on the board at the 5:20 mark.
Meade increased its lead to nine points, 12-3 before back-to-back threes by Talon Gary and Cole Akridge cut the deficit to three points, 12-9 with 2:08 left in the first period. Meade’s John Wilson closed out the first quarter scoring with a three of his own and the Waves led by six, 15-9 heading into the second quarter.
Braxton Williams hit a three-pointer at the 7:04 mark to pull the Cougars to within five points, 17-12, but the Waves went on a 12-5 run to open up a 12-point advantage, 29-17 with 4:32 left in the first half.
Meade still led by 12 points, 32-20 with 3:31 left before the Cougars closed out the half on an 11-4 run that pulled them back to within five points, 36-31 at the break.
The two teams traded baskets opening the third quarter before the Cougars went ice cold. Trailing 38-33 with 5:44 left in the period, the Cougars had 10 straight empty trips. In that stretch, the Waves outscored them 10-0 and built a 15-point lead, 48-33 with under a minute to play in the period.
Rackley hit 1-of-2 shots at the foul line with 14.5 seconds left to break the Meade run, but Bryce Garris closed out the scoring with a lay-up with five seconds left and Meade led by 16 points, 50-34 heading into the fourth quarter.
When the Waves scored the first seven points of the final period to take a 23-point lead, it meant the visitors had outscored the Cougars 21-3 since the start of the second half. With mostly bench players on the court at the end, the Cougars were able to whittle a few points off their deficit, but not enough to affect the outcome.
Garris led all scorers with 25 points, while Zeb Wilson added 10.
Freshman Cole Akridge led the Cougars with 13 points, the only player in double figures for Grayson County. He also added three assists. Rackley and Gary both finished with nine points, and Gary led the team on the glass with eight rebounds.
Colton Williams added five points and three boards, while his older brother, Braxton, had four points, two boards and two assists. Gage Akridge had three points to complete the Cougar scoring.
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