Etown Game

We defeated the Etown Panthers 51-47 on the road last night for easily our biggest win of the year. Etown was 1-3 coming into last night's game but those losses were to some of the best teams in the 5th region and to Male.

Etown's 1-3-1 defense gave us fits again last night as it did last year. They were so long and athletic it was hard to get much penetration from our guards out front. At halftime we were down 24-21 in a low scoring affair.

We were down 8 midway through the 3rd quarter before we made a good run at them to tie it up going into the 4th quarter. This is when I really though our experience and toughness paid off as we were able to make some big plays down the stretch and some very big free throws.

Our team defense was outstanding tonight holding Etown's 6'10 center to 8 points and forcing them to make outside jumpers on us. Etown shot 17-38 from the field for 44%, but our half court man to man forced them into 18 turnovers. We also mixed in our 3-2 zone and I thought that really forced them to perimeter shots and they hit 5-16 3's for 31%.

We shot 14-41 from the field and only 5-19 from 2 point range but we finally found our shooting stroke from the 3 point line as he hit 9-22 for 41%. We had 5 different players make 3's on the night, led by Wes Smith's 3, Hunter Gary's 3, Travis Johnston, Tyler Saltsman and Aaron Deviney had 1 a piece.

We got out rebounded for the game 29-27, but against the 6'10, 6'7 size front line I was pleased with the effort. Etown pulled down 11 offensive rebounds but we countered that with 10 of our own. Etown forced us into 20 turnovers which was a season high for us. We were led in rebounding by Bennett Skaggs with 8, Tyler Saltsman with 6 and Aaron Deviney and Hunter Gary had 4. Travis Johnston led us with 6 assits and 4 steals. Bennett Skaggs also had 4 steals as we had 14 steals during the game.

Bennett Skaggs was chosen the Player of the Game by scoring 4 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. A great all around performance by Bennett. Aaron Deviney and Dustin Thomas played their best defense of the year against Etown's post players and that was a big key in the game.

Scoring:
Hunter Gary-11
Travis Johnston-11
Wes Smith-9
Aaron Deviney-9
Tyler Saltsman-7
Bennett Skaggs-4

Fairfield Inn Tournament at Apollo High School

We will play in the Fairfield Inn Holiday Tournament at Apollo on Saturday, Dec. 20-Tuesday, Dec. 23rd. This is a varsity only tournament and we will be spending 1 night on Saturday and coming back after our game on Sunday. The schedule is below.

Pool 1:
Apollo
Lone Oak
Holy Cross
Moore

Pool 2:
Grayson Co.
North Hardin
Seneca
Owensboro

Saturday, Dec. 20
1:00-Holy Cross vs. Moore
2:45-Seneca vs. North Hardin

6:00-Owensboro vs. Grayson County
7:45-Apollo vs. Lone Oak

Sunday, Dec. 21
1:00-Grayson County vs. Seneca
2:45-Holy Cross vs. Lone Oak

6:00-Owensboro vs. North Hardin
7:45-Apollo vs. Moore

Monday, Dec. 22
1:00-Lone Oak vs. Moore
2:45-Grayson County vs. North Hardin

6:00-Owensboro vs. Seneca
7:45-Apollo vs. Holy Cross

Tuesday, Dec. 23
1:00-4th place teams in each pool
2:45-3rd place teams in each pool

6:00-2nd place teams in each pool
7:45-1st place teams in each pool

Etown Game Rescheduled for Thursday, Dec. 18th

The jv/varsity game at Etown will be played Thursday, Dec. 18th. The jv game will begin at 5:30 with the varsity game at 7:00. The bus is scheduled to leave at 4:00.

Wednesday, Dec. 17th

We will practice today from 3:00-5:00 this afternoon. This practice is for freshman, jv and varsity players. Please use caution in coming to practice, no one will be punished for missing today's practice.

Game Cancelled tonight

The jv/varsity game at Etown tonight has been cancelled. No make up date has been set. We will not practice today. There will be practice for all players on Wednesday, Dec. 17th (if school is cancelled). Time will be determined in the morning based on the weather conditions.

Tuesday, Dec. 16th

The varsity team will NOT come in at 10am for practice, instead we will wait to hear about the game at Etown first. A decision will be made around 12:00 on whether we will play the game.

I will do my best to notify everyone as soon as possible.

In Case of Bad Weather

I do not have all of our numbers in the ONE CALL System yet so everyone will need to listen to the radio or call a teammate to find out information regarding tomorrow night's game at Etown.

In the event there is no school on Tuesday, Dec. 16th, the varsity will practice at 10am at the high school. The jv and freshman will not practice. If we have a game tomorrow night at Etown the bus is scheduled to leave at 4:00. The jv game starts at 5:30 and the varsity game at approximately 7:00.

As always, please use caution regarding practice on days we don't have school because of weather. No player will be punished for missing practice due to inclement weather.

Edmonson County Game

On Friday night we traveled to our biggest rivals' home court and came away with a 60-42 victory in Brownsville. The win made us 2-0 in the district with both wins coming on the road.

The game vs. Edmonson County was a very low scoring game in the first half. The score at the end of the first quarter was 9-6 in our favor. The second quarter was very similar as we led 20-17 going into the locker room at the half.

Some stats that did not bode well for us at halftime was our 7-30 shooting in the first half and we were being out rebounded 22-10 at the half. Even with these lopsided stats in favor of the Wildcats, we felt good to still have the lead. However, we knew a big 3rd quarter could be the determining factor in the game. Travis Johnston scored 7 points and Tyler Saltsman had 5 to lead us to a 40-28 advantage after 3 quarters. Perhaps the biggest shot of the night was Travis' 3 pointer at the end of the quarter to push the lead to 12.

We went to our Spread offense in the 4th quarter and Edmonson County was unable to guard us as we made 7 of 12 shots in the 4th quarter with all 7 makes coming in the lane for easy points.

For the game we shot 22-52 from the field for 42% and hit 14-18 free throws for 78%. Edmonson County shot 15-36 from the field for 41% and 9 of 14 from the foul line for 64%. The rebounding battle was won by Edmonson 28-27. We forced Edmonson County into 17 turnovers and only committed 6 ourselves.

The rebounding for us was very balanced as we were led by Tyler Saltsman, Aaron Deviney and Travis Johnston with 5 a piece, while Bennett Skaggs and Lance Buckler chipped in with 4 boards.

Our bench was again a very important advantage for us. Even though we only produced 9 points out of our bench, Dustin Thomas, Hunter Gary, Seth Bratcher and Aaron Deviney helped keep the pressure on Edmonson County with big minutes and big plays defensively.

Travis Johnston led us with 19 points, 6 assists and zero turnovers as he was chosen the McDonald's Player of the Game on K105.

Scoring:
Travis Johnston-19
Tyler Saltsman-10
Lance Buckler-8
Aaron Deviney-7
Wes Smith-7
Bennett Skaggs-7
Hunter Gary-2

To listen to a replay of the game go to WWW.k105.com/media

Butler County Game

We improved to 3-0 on the year with a 67-31 victory in Morgantown over the Bears. It was not a very well played game at all on either side but our defensive pressure was the difference in the game.

Travis Johnston scored 8 of his 10 points in the first quarter to give us a 21-5 lead going into the second quarter. We forced 10 Butler County turnovers in the first quarter. In the second quarter we had 7 cougars contribute points, led by Tyler Saltsman 5 to take a 40-13 lead at halftime. Things were rather sloppy in the second half as we tried to maintain our intensity in such a lopsided game. We only scored 27 points in the second half but held Butler County to 18 in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

We shot 24-60 from the field for 40% and 16-28 from the free throw line for 57%. Butler County shot 11-28 from the field for 39% and 8 of 22 from the foul line for 36%. The rebounding was tied at 28 a piece but that stat is a little misleading because Butler Co. only attempted 28 shots, therefore there was not many chances for us to get rebounds. We had 10 offensive boards to Butler County's 3. We committed 7 turnovers and forced 35 turnovers. We also had 24 steals in the game and was led by Travis Johnston's 6 and Hunter Gary's 5. Our leading rebounder for the night was Lance Buckler with 8.

All 11 players dressed for the game scored including Ryan Grubs' first 2 varsity points. Seth Bratcher continued his fine play off the bench with 9 points on 4-5 from the field.

Brady Clemons did not play and will miss the rest of the season with a compound fracture of his left arm. He was injured in a freshman game on Saturday morning and had 2 plates and 8 screws placed in his arm Saturday afternoon. Brady was the only freshman dressing varsity and will be missed at all 3 levels of play.

Scoring:
Travis Johnston-10
Tyler Saltsman-10
Seth Bratcher-9
Wes Smith-7
Bennett Skaggs-7
Lance Buckler-7
Hunter Gary-6
Aaron Deviney-4
Daniel Buckles-3
Brent Basham-2
Ryan Grubs-2

Muhlenberg South

On Friday night the Muhlenberg South Suns came to Leitchfield for a boy/girl doubleheader at the Cougar gym. We played the first game and improved to 2-0 on the year with a 71-52 victory over the Suns.

The opening quarter ended in our favor by a score of 12-9. The first quarter was a sloppy one as we turned it over 6 times and we only hit 5 of 12 shots. The second quarter was much better offensively for us as we put up 20 points and was led by Wes Smith's 10 points in the quarter. The halftime score was 32-20 as our defense turned South over 11 times in the first half. The 3rd quarter was a better offensive quarter for both teams as we outscored South 19-16 in the quarter. In the fourth quarter we outscored South 20-16 to make the final margin 71-52.

Offensively we shot 27-55 for 49% and hit 12-15 from the line for 80%. We hit 5-16 from behind the 3 point line for 31%. Muhlenberg South hit 18-44 from the field for 40% and 12-21 from the line for 57%. The Suns hit 4-16 from the 3 point line for 25%.

We out rebounded the Suns 30-22 including 10 offensive boards, led by Aaron Deviney's 9 rebounds and Wes Smith's 4 offensive boards.

Travis Johnston led the assist attack with 9 and Bennett Skaggs contributed 5 assists as we totaled 17 assists on 27 field goals.

Wes Smith was chosen K105's player of the game by scoring a career high 24 points on 10-14 shooting including 3-4 from the 3 point line. Wes also held South's leading scorer, Michael Civils to 9 points. Wes also contributed 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Scoring:
Wes Smith-24
Travis Johnston-16
Bennett Skaggs-13
Aaron Deviney-5
Seth Bratcher-5
Tyler Saltsman-2
Lance Buckler-2
Dustin Thomas-2
Brady Clemons-2

To listen to a replay of the game go to: www.k105.com/media Go to cougar sports and click on Dec. 5th. There is also a replay of the Dec. 2nd game at Breckinridge Co.

BOOSTER MEETING

Our next Booster Meeting will be Thursday, December 11, at 5:30. Please try to attend as we have to discuss incorporating our booster club and the upcoming LDB Holiday Classic that we will be hosting on Dec. 27th, 29th and 30th.

Breck Co. Game

In our first game of the season we defeated Breck Co. by the score of 71-58. We got off to a slow start in the first quarter but got a huge lift off the bench from Hunter Gary when Bennett Skaggs committed his second foul 1:25 into the game. Hunter scored 8 of his 14 points in the first quarter and we led 18-15 at the end of the first quarter.

We were much better defensively in the second quarter and outscored Breck 18-9. In the second quarter we were able to get out in transition to get some easy baskets before Breck Co. could set up in their box and 1 defense. Seth Bratcher scored all 10 of his points in the second quarter as our bench gave us a big lift again.

In the 3rd quarter we outscored Breck Co. 15-12 and then got outscored by Breck 22-20 in the 4th quarter. We build a 19 point lead but let Breck cut the lead to 5 at one point early in the 4th quarter but we stayed aggressive and continued to attack their pressure to stretch the lead back up to double digits.

For the game we shot 28-61 for 46%. We only hit 3-17 from the 3 point line but made 12-15 free throws for 80%. We committed 9 turnovers and had 20 assists on 28 baskets.
Breck Co. shot 21-42 from the field for 50% and hit 11 of 19 free throws. They were 5 of 12 from the 3 point line and committed 13 turnovers. We also out rebounded Breck Co. 32-20 led by Tyler Saltsman with 8, Seth Bratcher with 7 and Lance Buckler with 6. Travis Johnston led us with 9 assists and 6 steals.

Scoring:
Lance Buckler-21 (chosen as the player of the game on the radio)
Hunter Gary-14
Travis Johnston-12
Tyler Saltsman-10
Seth Bratcher-10
Wes Smith-3
Bennett Skagss-1