The Logan Rogersville Wildcats defeated the Reeds Spring Wolves, 68-54, in a matchup between COC Small schools.
Rogersville is finally getting healthy and it showed on this night as they used their defense to stop the Reeds Spring Wolves in the second half.
The first quarter saw the teams exchange buckets, with Rogersville holding a two point advantage, 17-15.
The second quarter saw Rogersville get sloppy with the ball, turning it over several times. Reeds Spring took advantage of the turnovers, outscoring the Wildcats by seven, giving the Wolves the momentum going into the half with a score of 32-27 in their favor.
The second half, Rogersville picked up the defensive pressure and Reeds Spring found themselves in foul trouble. Rogersville made up the five point halftime deficit, taking the lead after three, 47-44. The Wildcats stretched their lead up to 10 points midway through the fourth quarter.
While Rogersville’s offense was clicking in the second half, their defense was making it difficult for Reeds Spring to score. Rogersville had seven different players score in the second half but their defense allowed the Wolves just three scorers.
“I thought we responded well to a little bit of adversity in the first half; the second half we didn’t do as good a job,” said Reeds Spring coach Barry Yocum. “You have to give Rogersville some credit, they are a good team. We took some bad shots, some ill-advised shots, and they made some plays down the stretch, hit free throws and got to the free throw line. Obviously had some foul trouble early, some guys didn’t score. We didn’t do what we needed to do to be victorious tonight.”
Rogersville senior Marcus Gorman stole the ball and went length of the court, scoring the field goal, to put the Wildcats up 10 with 4:30 left to go in the fourth quarter, giving the Wildcats a 57-47 lead.
“It felt good to win,” said Marcus Gorman. In the first half, they outplayed us and we finally realized how good of a team they actually were. They are a pretty good team this year, 13-7. We’re still just looking to play Wildcat basketball. No matter what the outcome, we are trying to get our team better. We had a couple of turnovers but we also forced a couple and that helped us get a little cushion on the lead.”
Rogersville senior Christian Brown led his team in scoring, with 20.
“This was our first test this year, first real test, especially on the road,” said Brown. “It is a conference game and a district game. We knew the importance going into it. We knew they were having a good season so we definitely knew it was going to be a tough task. We knew that if we came out and played our game then we’d have a chance to win. I think we really made a lot of improvements for everybody tonight. There were times that we may have forced some things. Me, myself, I forced too many shots tonight. I think for the most part we played our style of basketball and took care of business.”
“It is a good win for us,” said Rogersville coach Rod Gorman. “We’ve kind of hit a stretch where we’ve been able to win a few, giving us more confidence. Maybe the schedule is a little more favorable, but we beat a very good basketball team tonight. They are a good team and Coach Yocum has done a great job with the program. We found some momentum and were able to keep pushing it out there and got it to ten. That was a little more comfortable and that maybe put a little more pressure on them. Christian and Marcus and Andrew Scott, off the bench, played really well. I’m really pleased with the way our bigs just keep improving. Since the beginning of the year they’ve come a long way. I’m very happy for our guys.”
Rogersville 17 10 20 21 -68
Reeds Spring 15 17 12 10 -54
Rogersville—Christian Brown-20, Luke Vandersnick-14, Andrew Scott-10, Marcus Gorman-7, Matt McHenry-6, Jake Crosby-6, Evan Whetstone-5
Reeds Spring—Jarod Cole-25, Joel Gertson-16, Adam Taylor-6, Austin Bradfield-6, Dillon Neels-1
