After going down to the wire in a narrow loss to Madisonville-North Hopkins on Tuesday, the Christian County boys’ basketball team found itself in need of another fourth-quarter rally against visiting Paducah Tilghman on Friday.
However, with a chance to win in the final seconds, the Colonels came up just short in a 62-61 loss to the Blue Tornado. Tilghman improved to 3-1 with a second straight win, while the Colonels slipped to 2-2.
Breland Morrison tossed in seven early points, and George Sanders added six to lead the Colonels to a 15-14 lead after the first quarter.
Jayvion Powell put up 18 first-half points for the Blue Tornado, and despite 10 combined for Morrison and KJ Vaughn, they outscored the Colonels 20-16 in the second to lead 34-31 at the halftime break.
Paducah Tilghman got nine points from Mian Shaw in the third and continued to pad the advantage. Prince Northington scored half of the Colonels’ 12 points in the frame, and they were on the wrong end of a 51-43 score with a quarter to play.
Christian County rallied behind eight more from Morrison and led 61-60 with just over a minute left. Shaw knocked down a pair of free throws to regain the edge for the Blue Tornado, but Powell missed a pair to leave the door open for the Colonels. After a timeout, Christian County got a good look at a game-winner that wouldn’t go down for Morrison.
Powell led all scorers with 26, followed for the Blue Tornado by Shaw with 22.
Morrison finished with 21, and Sanders scored 12 for the Colonels.
It won’t get any easier for the Colonels, s they travel to Eddyville on Saturday to face defending 2nd-Region champions Lyon County.
Paducah Tilghman 14 20 17 11 — 62
Christian County 15 16 12 18 — 61
Paducah Tilghman (3-1) — Powell 26, Shaw 22, Payne 7, Harris 3, Williams 2, Woodfork 2
Christian County (2-2) — Morrison 21, Sanders 12, Northington 8, Vaughn 8, Miles 7, Blanton 3, Bateman 1, Riley 1
