The recent snow and below freezing temperatures played havoc with high school basketball last week.
The effects of the layoff showed Friday night in the Hidden Valley gym, as similar to the weeklong temperatures, most of the action remained in the single digits.
In a sloppy game that often looked like a turnover festival, Pulaski County managed to wrangle out enough on the defensive end to overtake Hidden Valley 48-31 in River Ridge action.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Pulaski County head coach Mark Hanks admitted in the Cougar locker room afterward. “We had 10 turnovers in the first half. That’s our MO and who we are. It is what it is.”
“We got to practice two days this week,” Hanks added. “Offensively it showed. We look OK for a couple possessions, then not so OK. Our defense won this one and I’m proud of them. We had good defensive rotation that was effective.”
Hidden Valley had trouble with the Cougar full-court trap and chasing defensive style throughout the contest. The Titans didn’t score in double digits in any of the first three quarters, and only got to 11 in the fourth after a layup with 8 seconds remaining and the game long out of reach.
Hidden Valley head coach Troy Wells was not using the weather as an excuse.
“When you always do what you’ve always done, then you always get what you’ve always got,” Wells said prophetically afterward. “This was the worst exhibition I’ve witnessed in a number of years. There’s no excuse for not playing hard. We had lack of effort, lack of execution, lack of passion.”
Pulaski scored the game’s first seven points and never looked back. Hidden Valley scored its first points at the 4:16 mark of the quarter and trailed 13-4 after one. The Cougars went to the halftime break up 25-13, scoring most of their baskets from in close.,
Things didn’t get better for Hidden Valley when starter Camden Sine went down with an ankle injury early in the third quarter. Sine would not return the rest of the game.
Pulaski County’s lead reached 18 points at 33-15 late in the third as the Titans had little success finding the twine. Luke Marston got Hidden Valley to within 36-23 on a 3-pointer early in the final frame, but it was too little, too late to overcome the Cougar advantage.
One shining star for Pulaski came at the free throw line, where the Cougars finished 12-of-13 ( 92%).
J.J. DeVaughn led the Hidden Valley scoring with 11 points. No other Titan had more than 5 points for the game. Lonnie Mattox had a game-high 12 points for Pulaski County.
Things don’t get any easier for Hidden Valley this week. Due to makeup games from the weather, the Titans will hit the hardwood four nights.
– Bill Turner
