Crittenden falls in regional opener

Despite outrebounding the taller Henderson County frontline 40-29 Monday night in the Second Region Tournament at Hopkinsville, it was the turnover category that cost the Rockets a chance of pulling an upset.

Crittenden coughed the ball up 28 times compared to just eight for the Colonels in falling 69-35 and finishing the season at 17-10.

While the Rockets managed to win the rebounding battle, the starting Colonel frontline of Elijah Haygan, Russ Gibson and Kyle LeMar easily dominated in point production against their counterpart's starting frontline of Zack Beverly, Nick Parker and Cody Robinson by a whopping total of 39-8.

Beverly, playing in his final high school game, battled foul trouble from the early going, and picked up his third personal only .33 seconds into the second half. He only played 7:33 seconds of the contest going scoreless while getting five rebounds.

To complicate matters, Rocket reserve center Andy Hunt also picked up his third foul less than 1:00 later, forcing Rocket coach Jimmy Croft to go with a smaller lineup and further hindering his team's chances against the bigger Colonels.

Although it ended up being a blowout, the Rockets hung tough in the opening half trailing 19-11 after the first quarter.

With about 2:00 remaining before halftime, they trimmed the deficit to 24-21 thanks to rebounding and good defense, which they converted into points on the other end of the floor.

Unfortunately, the Colonels closed the half on a 5-0 spurt which gave them a 29-21 halftime advantage and were never threatened again. They continued to widen their lead during the second half while cruising to the blowout opening round win.

Although things did not go well in the short stay at the regional tourney, the Rocket coach is proud of the way his team fought to rack up 17 victories on the season.

"I've had some very proud moments with our basketball team," he said.

SCORE BY QUARTERS
Crittenden County 11 10 6 8
Henderson County 18 11 18 22

CRITTENDEN (35) - Parker 1-6 0-1 2, Lanham 1-1 0-0 2, Beverly 0-3 0-0 0, Hunt 1-3 0-0 2, Thompson 1-1 0-3 2, Findley 0-0 0-0 0, Hart 0-2 0-0 0, Robinson 2-4 2-4 6, Easley 0-0 2-2 2, Croft 1-3 0-0 3, Hill 3-8 2-4 8, Moss 1-1 0-0 2, Travis 0-1 0-0 0, Guess 2-6 2-2 6. FG 13-39. 3-Pointers 1-7 (Croft 1-3). FT 8-16. Fouls 28. Rebounds 40 (Robinson 5, Parker 5, Beverly 5).

HENDERSON (69) - Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Rapier 1-3 1-3 3, Gibson 8-17 7-11 24, Fidler 0-1 0-0 0, Burton 3-5 0-0 6, Jarrett 4-8 1-2 10, Keye 0-2 0-1 0, Lamar 1-2 2-2 4, Evans 4-9 3-6 11, Haygan 3-4 5-10 11, C.Lamar 0-0 0-2 0. FG 24-51. 3-Pointers 2-4 (Gibson 1-1, Jarrett 1-2). FT 19-37. Fouls 16. Rebounds 29 (Lamar 7).