Welcome
     Front Page
     Subscription Info
     Letter To The Editor
     Local Links
     Question of the Week
     Contact Us

Tribe gives Daniel win in opener

12/12/2014

By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor

The Montgomery County boys basketball team rolled to an 83-64 win over the Bracken County Polar Bears at Brooksville last Tuesday night to give first-year head coach Matt Daniel a win in his career opener.
The Tribe pulled away from a 33-28 halftime lead to win easily as they connected on 10 of 20 three-pointers in the contest.

Then on Saturday at the MCHS Arena the Indians lost a 54-52 thriller to West Jessamine as a couple of shots that could have sent the game into overtime were off the mark in the closing seconds.

“It feels great to get a win,” Daniel said after the opener with Bracken County. “The main thing right now is for the guys to play hard and have some fun as they’re adjusting to another head coach. I think we did that tonight. We played with a high level of energy, limited our mistakes and did a lot of good things.”

The Indians were a bit short-handed in the season opener with senior guard Joe Chism still sidelined with an injury and senior forward Chase Hall sitting out a one game suspension from the end of the football season.

The Tribe was able to keep sophomore guard Austin Crawford, one of the 10th Region’s top players, in check most of the night and never trailed in the game.

The Indians opened up their district schedule Tuesday night against Paris and then will host Madison Central on Thursday night at the MCHS Arena before traveling to Paris on Saturday to play in the Kentucky Bank Classic.

As of press time there was still some question about who and when the Indians would play Saturday but Daniel said the latest word from Bourbon County officials, where the game will be played, matched the Indians up with Anderson County at 7:15 p.m.
Here’s a look at the two games played last week.

MCHS 84
Bracken County 63
Montgomery County hit nine of 11 shots in the opening period to open up a 12-point lead and controlled the game throughout in opening the 2014-15 season with a win.

Sophomore guard Austin Crawford, the leading scorer in the 10th Region a year ago, was held scoreless in the first period by the Tribe defense but scored nine of his 22 points in the second period as the Polar Bears, under first-year head coach Jeremy Miles, rallied to within 33-28 at the half.

The Tribe went on a 12-0 run early in the third period as junior center Shelby Combs scored on back-to-back three-point plays and Bracken County never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Junior point guard Caswell Fuller also hit a pair of three-pointers in that third period.

Then in the final period junior guard Art Walker nailed a trio of three-pointers and senior Sam Hodgson hit eight of 10 free throws as the Tribe continued to extend their lead.

Montgomery County scored 51 points in the final half after netting just 33 in the first half.

Walker finished with 21 points to lead four Indians in double figures. Combs added 20 with Hodgson scoring 17 and Fuller 11 to go along with five assists.

Crawford went seven of eight at the free throw line in the final eight minutes and finished with a game-high 22 points while sophomore guard Jacob Hamilton added 17.

“I thought we did a good job on Crawford,” Daniel noted. “He’s going to get his points but we kept him from having a really big night.
“We’ve just got to get a lot tougher inside and do a better job on the glass.”
The Indians were out-rebounded 38-34.

MCHS (84) — Caswell Fuller 4-5 1-2 11, Art Walker 8-12 1-2 21, Shelby Combs 8-12 4-8 20, Sam Hodgson 4-9 8-10 17, Cody Parsley 1-3 1-2 4, Braxton Hopkins 2-4 0-0 5, Cameron Smith 1-1 0-0 3, Paul Wise 1-2 1-2 3, Brandon Smallwood 0-0 0-0 0, Trevor Martin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-48 16-26 84.

Bracken County (63) — Austin Crawford 6-18 10-11 22, Kolton Williams 0-6 2-2 2, Dylan Biddle 1-3 0-0 3, Cole Todd 0-1 0-0 0, Caleb Rigg 3-6 0-0 9, Brady Jones 2-5 1-2 5, Cooper Engnes 1-6 0-0 3, Jacob Hamilton 6-9 5-6 17, Cole Bishop 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 20-56 19-26 63.

MCHS 21 12 20 31—84
BCHS 9 19 11 24—63

Three-point field goals — MCHS 10-10-20 (Walker 4-8, Fuller 2-2, Hodgson 1-6, Hopkins 1-2, Parsley 1-1, Smith 1-1); Bracken County 5-17 (Rigg 3-5, Biddle 1-2, Engnes 1-4). Rebounds — MCHS 34 (Combs 7, Hopkins 5); Bracken County 38 (Crawford 11, Engnes 4). Assists — MCHS 14 (Fuller 5, Combs 4); Bracken County 2. Turnovers — MCHS 10, Bracken County 14. Total fouls — MCHS 22, BRacken County 19. Fouled out — Fuller, Williams. Technical fouls — None.

West Jessamine 54
MCHS 52
The Indians missed a pair of shots in the final seconds that would have sent the game into overtime as the Colts held on for a win in the second annual Bart Rison Classic.

Bourbon County defeated Estill County, 64-59, in the first half of the doubleheader Saturday evening at the MCHS Arena.
Montgomery County got off to a good start in the contest as Sam Hodgson and Art Walker hit early three-point shots for a 6-0 lead. Walker added another three-pointer later in the period and Cody Parsley also hit a long-range shot as the Tribe led 18-14 at the end of the opening period.

Although the Colts tied the game at 20-20 early in the second quarter they never were able to get the lead and the Indians, who passed the ball extremely well in the first half, held a 34-32 halftime lead.
But the Tribe went cold in the second half.
After Caswell Fuller hit a pair of layups to give the Indians a 38-34 lead with 6:37 to play in the third period the Indians didn’t score again in the quarter and West Jessamine moved in front.

The Colts took the lead on a basket by David McCorvey at 39-38 with 4:02 to play in the period and they led 44-38 at the end of the quarter when Issiah Okesson hit a three-pointer, his only field goal of the game, with six seconds to play in the quarter.
Fuller finally broke the Indians’ long scoring drought when he hit a three-pointer with 5:20 to play that cut the lead to 44-41.
That ende