Rocky Mount… Traveling to Franklin Co. became a long road back home, as the Pulaski Co. Cougars lost to the Franklin Co. Eagles 44-41.

The Cougars had beaten the Eagles three weeks ago in the Cougar Den 55-42. This night the Cougars had to go up against a 1-3-1 zone, and it affected them. They had trouble getting the ball inside and settled to shot a lot of threes.

“We shot too many threes tonight,” said Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. “Their 1-3-1 zone slowed us down. It affected us. They played better than the first time, and we didn’t play as well.”

The Cougars started slowly scoring just five points in the opening quarter but still out-scored the Eagles by one. They found themselves in a tied ballgame at 18 at halftime.

Franklin Co. (3-5) went up 30-26 after three quarters basically on the play of Jacob Smith and Fred Mack as they totaled all the Eagles 12 points in the quarter. Smith was the Eagles leading scorer and the game’s high score with 20 points. Mack finished with eight and Briggs Parris contributed eight as well. Those three accounted for 36 of the Eagles 44 points.

Pulaski Co. (5-2) was led by senior point guard Isaac Poe with 16 points and CC Grubb with 10. Trent Blankenship led the Cougars with three assists and three rebounds. Miguel Garcia has nine points, two assists and two rebounds. The Cougars found themselves down 10, (40-30) late in the fourth and fought their way back to within three, but it was too little too late. The Cougar junior varsity lost to the young Eagles and are now 1-6 on the season. That’s their fifth consecutive loss.

The Cougars will be on the road again tonight as they travel to Galax to take on the Maroon Tide.

The junior varsity will tip at 5:30 and the varsity at 7pm.

PC 5 13 8 15 41

FC 4 14 12 14 44

PC- Grubb 10, Poe 16, Garcia 9, Blankenship 4, Robertson 2

FC- Robertson 4, Smith 20, Parris 8, Mack 8, Haner 2

3 PT Goals – PC – 8 (Grubb 3, Poe 3, Garcia 2)

– FC – 2 (Smith, Mack)

Dublin… Sometimes it’s not how you start but how you finish. So was the case Friday night for the Cougar boys basketball team. Down seven at halftime, the Cougars turned to a full court press to open the second half and turned the game around as they went on to defeat the Hidden Valley Titans 60-55.

The Cougars (5-1), coming off a loss at Cave Spring and down 27-20 at halftime, turned up the pressure and went on to outscore the Titans 40-28 in the second half. The big “three” Isaac Poe, Miguel Garcia and CC Grubb led the way, with Poe and Grubb combining for 34 points, with both tossing in 17 apiece. Senior Miguel Garcia contributed 12 and Sean Spencer tossed in seven all in the second half.

The Titans (1-2) got a team and game high 21 points from Joseph Keenan and 12 from sophomore Jonah Fitzgerald.

The Cougars came and went on a six-zero run in the first 25 seconds of the second half only to see the Titans go back up 34-26 with 5:45 left in the third. They would go on an eight-zip run and finally take the lead at 36-35 on a Poe jumper at the two-minute mark of the quarter. In fact, Poe would score seven straight to put the Cougars up 41-40 after three.

The opening of the fourth saw Grubb knock in a huge three from the corner, and Trent Blankenship knocking in a jumper from top of the key for the Cougars to take a 46-40 advantage as the Titans would have to call a timeout. Garcia would then hit three buckets in the lane late, and Poe would hit three of five from the charity stripe to seal the deal.

“Our press turned up the tempo some in the second half, and we took care of the basketball much better the second half,” said Cougar head coach Andrew Hart. “Hidden Valley does what they do real well, and we didn’t handle it well the first half. We turned the ball over four consecutive times there in the second quarter? We only had three the entire second half.” Coach then added. ”The big “three” came through tonight, and if they do that, we will be ok.”

The Cougars are down to just 10 players as they lost one player earlier this week due to “personal reasons” and Kevin Smith hasn’t dressed out yet this season due to a broken bone. He is supposed to be in action after the first of the year.

Pulaski Co. junior varsity saw their record dip to 1-5 as they lost to the Titans 45-36. Titans were led by Cole Cundiff with 14 points. The Cougars got a big night from big man Austin Reinhardt with 13. Kellen Dalton has eight, Cole Duncan seven, Jaylin Nowlin six and Kohl Hedge two.

The Cougars have two roads next week as they go to Franklin Co on Monday and Galax on Tuesday. The tip for the junior varsity at Franklin Co. Monday is 5:30 with the varsity to follow at 7pm.

HV 16 11 13 15-55

PC 15 5 21 19-60

HV- Musselman 5, Presenen 7, Hampton 3, Page 7, Keenan 21. Fitzgerald 12

PC- Grubb 17, Robertson 1, Blankenship 3, Bradley 3, Garcia 12, Poe 17 Spencer 7

3 PT Goals- HV- 3-(Keenan), PC- 5- (Grubb 3, Garcia, Spencer)

Total Fouls- HV- 16, PC- 16

Fouled Out- HV- Presenen

Technicals- None