15-0 Start Helps Wildcats Beat HCA in Opener

12-2-wells

You don’t get many better starts to a coaching career than what the Trigg County Wildcats gave Mason Burgett Thursday.

The Wildcats hit six of their first eight shots and built a 15-0 lead over Heritage Christian Academy in the game’s first 2:05. They would hang on to beat the Warriors 71-58 at Wildcat Gym in the first-ever meeting between the two schools that are 21 miles apart.

The win gave Burgett the win in his first game as Trigg’s head coach after taking over for his father Chad in the offseason.

The quick start was something the team lacked last year although Heritage Christian never backed down and closed the game strong to cut the Wildcat advantage in half.

Trigg’s pressure defense helped them push the tempo of the game and helped them get up 26 points on 18 shots in the game’s first eight minutes.

After getting knocked to the ground early, the Warriors played even with the Wildcats for the next 12:36, trailing 37-23 with 1:24 left in the half.

The Wildcats led by as many as 20 points in the first half and took a 41-23 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Landen Wells scored six of his nine points in the third quarter as the Warriors kept the Wildcats from increasing its lead.

Trigg began the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run to grab its biggest lead of the game at 69-42. The Wildcats removed its starters up 69-44 with 4:13 left. HCA kept plugging as Jason Leek scored seven of his 16 points in the final four minutes as the Warriors finished within 13 points at the final horn.

Trigg County shot 37-percent from the field (24 of 65) and was 7-of-25 behind the arc. Landon Stewart came off the Trigg bench to hit 3 of 4 from deep and finish with 13 points.

Jhaden Vaughn had a double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Wildcats. He was 9-of-13 at the free throw line. Luke Washer scored a career-high 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Jerimyah Shearer added 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists.

Heritage Christian, who is in the final transition year to the KHSAA, shot 35 percent from the field (21 of 59) and was just 1 of 9 behind the arc. They knocked down 15 of 20 free throws and both teams had 38 rebounds.

Trevor Gibson had 18 points for the Warriors (8-4) and Leek added 16 points. Carlos Robles, HCA’s leading scorer, was held to six points but had a game-high 20 rebounds and added six steals and five assists.

HCA will play at Christian Fellowship Tuesday, while Trigg County is back in action Friday night at Clarksville Christian.

 

Heritage Christian                8          15        17        18–     58

Trigg County                          26         15        18        12–     71

Heritage Christian (8-4) – Gibson 18, Leek 16, Higgins 9, Wells 9, Robles 6

Trigg County (1-0) – Vaughn 19, Washer 14, Stewart 13, Shearer 11, Gude 7, Reynolds 5, Linton 2

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

All articles loaded
No more articles to load
Loading...