By DOUG EADS, CJ Correspondent
Al Gover and the Pulaski County Maroons were hoping the sequel to “Clash with the Titans” would go better than the first encounter between the two clubs.
Way back in early-December, it was Mercer County topping the Maroons on PC’s home court by a final tally of 77-65.
Last night however, in the much-anticipated rematch between the two at The PC Gym, the stakes were just a little bit higher.
Mercer County and Pulaski County played in an almost instant classic last night in the semi finals of the Boy’s 12th Region Tournament, but once again, it was Mercer County surviving down the stretch to turn back the young and pesky Maroons.
Clay Cinnamon scored 17 points to lead Mercer County, helping the Titans end PC’s season at 13-18 on the year, with a hard-fought, 72-63 win over Gover and crew.
Despite the loss that ended his club’s season, Gover was very pleased with the effort his young troops turned in last night, in erasing a double digit deficit in the third quarter, coming all the way back from the dead to grab a fourth quarter lead over the Titans, albeit a short one.
“There in the fourth quarter, we were really battling hard and we hit a couple of big shots to go ahead,” stated a disappointed Maroon head coach after the game.
“Mercer County is just tough to defend, and they shot the ball pretty well it seemed like to me, especially in the first half,” Gover added. “I know at halftime they were cooking pretty good. Our young kids, they just fought and fought and fought and fought tonight. A couple of bounces here and there, and you just never know.”
What everyone did know early on, was that Mercer County was red-hot from the floor in the opening half of play.
The Titans simply killed Pulaski early on with the long ball, as Mercer County hit its first five attempts from beyond the three-point line in racing out to a nine-point lead.
However, PC managed to keep things close, thanks to the one-two punch of Tyler Jenkins and Zach Eastham.
Jenkins, in what would be the final game of an outstanding prep career at Pulaski County, scored nine of his game-high 28 points in the opening half of play, while Eastham drilled a couple of bombs himself in the first half, helping to keep the home team within striking distance of Mercer County at the break, as PC trailed the Titans at the intermission, 38-31.
Mercer County quickly built its lead up to 11 points in the third quarter, but the pesky Maroons refused to go away on this night.
An Eastham trey whittled the deficit down to 46-42 early on in the third quarter of play, but Cinnamon came right back with a pair of free throws, pushing the advantage back out to 48-42 in favor of the Titans.
Late in the third frame, Eastham and Jenkins scored back to back baskets to bring PC within a deuce of Mercer County, at 54-52.
After a Titans basket extended the lead to 56-52, Eastham nailed his fourth trey of the game just before the horn sounded ending the third period, cutting the Mercer County lead to 56-55 headed into the final eight minutes of play.
A Jenkins lay-up to begin the fourth quarter gave Pulaski its first lead of game since way back at the beginning of the first quarter at 57-56, but disaster would strike PC just moments later.
With Mercer County back out in front of the Maroons at 60-57, Eastham went down with a severe ankle injury with 5:10 remaining on the clock.
It was at that point that Gover says he knew his club was going to be up against it.
“The way Zach was playing like he was, when he went down, I really felt like we were in some trouble at that point of the game,” pointed out Gover.
“He was hitting shots, he was rebounding, and he was just playing like a man possessed,” remarked the PC coach. “When he went down, his leadership went out the door, as well as some very good outside shooting, along with the fact that Zach is one of our better rebounders. That kind of hurt us without him out there, and we had some matchup problems after that, because they (Mercer County) went small, and took advantage of that.”
After Jenkins basket had given PC a 57-56 lead at the start of the fourth quarter, Mercer County took this game by the throat in going on an 11-1 run, with much of those points coming after the injury to Eastham.
PC was able to trim the deficit down to seven points late at 67-60, but Mercer County hit some clutch free throws down the stretch to end the Maroons season with the 72-63 triumph.
Still, despite the defeat and the 13-18 record for the year, Gover was all smiles when he talked about the growth of his young team throughout the course of this season — a season in which PC started three freshmen and advanced all the way to the regional semi finals.
Not bad at all.
“The good thing is, we got a little experience with this tournament run, and that will help toward next year and the year after that,” said Gover.
“It’s a run that I’m very proud of, and I’m glad that I was a part of it,” stated the PC coach. “We stayed standing a lot longer than most of the teams in our region, and I told the guys after the game they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. They’re all competitors, they played hard, and their effort was great all year long. If you would have told me back in October that we would have been here tonight, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I credit our seniors, Jed Mounce and Tyler Jenkins for the way this team came together, because they took these young kids under their wings and helped them out. That doesn’t always happen that way, but these guys accepted those young kids, and they made them feel comfortable, and a lot of our credit for this year goes to those two seniors.”
With the win, Mercer County advances to tonight’s championship game of the Boy’s 12th Regional Tournament, which will get underway from The PC Gym at 7 p.m.
Mercer County will square off against West Jessamine, who won last night’s first semi final game in getting past the Boyle County Rebels.
MC 20 18 18 16 — 72
PC 16 15 24 8 — 63
MERCER CO. — Cinnamon 17, Lee 10, Mayes 10, Taylor 9, McRay 9, Compton 8, Seagraves 7, Honchel 2
PULASKI CO. — Jenkins 28, Eastham 20, Johnson 6, Goins 5, Gover 2, Bales 2
