Travis Champion scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Preston Morgeson had 17 points in Crittenden County’s 56-54 victory over Trigg County Friday night in Marion.
The Rockets led by as much as 13 points in the first half, but saw the Wildcats come back to take the lead in the third quarter.
A 10-0 run to close the first half got Trigg within 28-25 at halftime of the 5th District contest. Tyler Ahart bookended the run with 3-pointers.
The Wildcats (3-3 overall, 0-2 district) went up twice in the third quarter. Trigg’s biggest lead came at 33-30 on a Jhaden Vaughn putback at the 5:20 mark.
But Crittenden (3-2, 2-0) countered with its own 10-0 run. Champion scored the final six points of that spree to put the Rockets up 40-33, and Crittenden took a 43-38 advantage to the final frame.
Trigg got within one point three times in the final frame. But some crucial missed free throws kept the Wildcats from drawing even again.
It was a 52-51 game with 32 seconds to play, but Champion made two free throws at the 0:30 mark, then hit two more from the charity stripe with 10 seconds to go to make it 56-51.
Khyran Vaughn made a late 3 for Trigg to cut the gap to two, but the Wildcats were out of timeouts and the clock expired without Crittenden having to inbound the ball.
Kendric Adams led a balanced Trigg effort with 14 points and six rebounds while Jhaden Vaughn had 13 points and 11 boards. Ahart had 12 points — on four 3-pointers — and Khyran Vaughn added 11 points and seven rebounds.
Crittenden has won its last five meetings with Trigg.
The two teams are scheduled to play again Feb. 1 in Cadiz.
Trigg County 9 16 13 16—54
Crittenden County 16 12 15 13—56
Trigg County (3-3, 0-2) — Kendric Adams 14, Jhaden Vaughn 13, Tyler Ahart 12, Khyran Vaughn 11, Tutu Gude 2, Luke Washer 2.
Crittenden County (3-2, 2-0) — Travis Champion 24, Preston Morgeson 17, Tristan Davidson 7, Holden Cooksey 6, Dylan Yates 2.
