ASHEBORO — After 10 days of rest thanks to wintry weather, the Southwestern Randolph High School varsity basketball coaches were hoping their squads would return to the court Tuesday refreshed and raring to go.
Those hopes were dashed as the
Cougars were swept by Mid-Piedmont Conference foe Southern Alamance — the boys falling 61-51 and the girls suffering a tough 45-44 loss at Jack Castelloe Gymnasium.
“We didn’t come out with much energy and focus,” SWR boys coach Matt Kiser said. “The ball didn’t bounce our way — it went off our hands or we had shots go in half way and then come out — but that’s the game. We’re at a point in the season where I’d like to see us win a game like this. We did battle back, though. I was pleased with our effort. We could have thrown in the towel.”
A Cougar 5-0 run in the third quarter pulled SWR within seven, but by the end of three, SWR trailed 49-33.
Still, the Cougars chipped away at SA’s lead, cutting it to five on a Tanner Ferguson 3-pointer with 2 minutes left in the game, but couldn’t come closer.
Ferguson and Brighten Long both had 14 points to lead SWR (1-4, 6-11), while Ethan Reynolds added 10.
For SA (2-4, 7-9), Jsi Hatfield
notched 14 points and Kyle Forbes chipped in 13.
A 6-0 run put SA ahead 13-2 early in the game. SWR cut it to five less than 2 minutes into the second quarter and then went on a 10-2 run to slash the margin to 21-19 with just over a minute left until halftime. The Patriots scored the last eight points of the half, however to go up 29-19 heading into the locker room.
SWR led 31-21 with less than 3 minutes left in the third quarter, but SA outscored the Cougars 9-2 over the next 4 minutes to pull within three. The lead grew back to seven with less than 5 minutes to play thanks to scores from Kenzie Whitson, Sarah Crews and Samantha Lagrama.
SA responded with a 9-0 run for a 41-39 lead with 2 minutes to play. During the streak, Cougars starting point guard Heaven Maness went down with a knee injury and never returned.
SWR cut the edge to one twice before sophomore point guard Lauren
Reasor hit two free throws to knot the game at 44-all with 23.2 seconds left on the clock.
Gracie Williams sank 1 of 2 on the other end.
With 8.7 ticks to play, SWR had possession, but Reasor and Crews both missed their attempts.
”We had no energy and no enthusiasm,” said
Cougars girls coach Seth Baxter, whose team also was playing without sixth man point guard McKenzie Brundage. “We were flat. We just haven’t played a complete 32 minutes. It’s disappointing. This is our third loss by two points or less.”
Crews paced SWR (1-4, 13-4) with 13 points, while Ashton Maness added eight off the bench — all in the first half,
For SA (2-4, 8-9), Eden Deanhardt had 15 points with Alyssa Jacobson chipping in 10.
The Cougars scored the first nine points of the game, but the Patriots responded with an 8-0 run to cut the edge to one early in the second quarter. The teams traded buckets until two Ashton Maness free throws and a Jordan Claborn bucket put SWR ahead 17-12.
Deanhardt sank the next shot to cut the lead to three, but Reasor and Ashton Maness hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Cougars ahead 23-14 heading into the locker room.
Crews hit the first bucket of the third quarter to give SWR its biggest lead of the game, but a 7-0 run by the Patriots slashed it to 25-21. The Cougars scored the next six for a 10-point edge with just under 3 minutes left in the third quarter.
The SWR squads host Southern Guilford on Friday.