Cougars lose in overtime
Staff writer
The Centre High School boys basketball season ended in a 73-68 overtime loss to Little River Monday at Centre in the first round of the regional tournament.
The Cougars were up 55-37 early in the fourth quarter but committed a number of costly turnovers — turning the ball over 19 times over the course of the game — when the Redskins started trapping. The Cougars shot 50 percent from the free-throw line to give up the lead.
Two Cougars had a chance to give Centre a 4-point lead at the free-throw line; the first player missed the front end of the one-and-one and the second player missed both free throws with the Cougars up by two points, 57-55.
Centre senior center Trevor Troutt did all he could, scoring 31 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the loss.
“He’s been our work horse all year long,” Centre Head Coach Greg Wyatt said.
Two other Centre players recorded double-doubles. Tanner Brunner scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Alex Hajek scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
But, the Cougars only scored 6 points in the fourth quarter while Little River poured in 21 points.
“We quit being aggressive,” Wyatt said. “Teams, when they get behind, are going to try to play with reckless abandon. The kids just got a little tighter. We got complacent. ”
Little River’s offense was electrified by the play of seniors Greg Prescott and Skylar Hill. Hill only scored 2 points in the first half, but was able to rattle off 22 points in the second half and overtime, doing much of his damage at the charity stripe.
Prescott made the biggest play of the game.
In overtime, with Little River up 67-66, Prescott secured another rebound off another free-throw miss and was fouled attempting a layup. He hit both free throws to give Little River a 3-point advantage. It was Prescott’s 15th point and the Redskins would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game, even though they had not secured the advantage until overtime.
The Cougars ended the season with a 12-9 record.