The big question Friday would be how Trigg County would respond to its first loss of the season – a 56-point beatdown by Lyon County three days earlier.
For 28 minutes, they didn’t respond well, falling behind Crittenden County by as many as 14 points. Trigg mounted a late rally but fell short 69-67, dropping its second straight district contest.
Trigg County was slow out of the gate, slow to get back on defense, and fell in love with a 3-point shot they weren’t hitting effectively.
The Wildcats actually led early 6-0, punctuated by an alley-oop dunk by Jhaden Vaughn.
But Trigg abandoned its efforts inside and began chucking up threes – misfiring on their first 11 attempts. Crittenden County, meanwhile, took advantage and chipped away at its deficit and took its first lead at 11-10 inside the final minute of the quarter.
Crittenden County would extend its lead to 30-21 on a Travis Champion three-point play with 1:35 left in the half.
Vaughn found the range from behind the arc, hitting a trio of threes in the second quarter to help the Wildcats get to within 33-28 by halftime.
Trigg got as close as 33-30, but Crittenden answered with a 10-0 run and built a 54-42 lead after three quarters.
As bad as Trigg County was behind the arc – 10-of-44 – they hit five of them in the final quarter as part of their comeback. Tutu Gude and Luke Washer hit back-to-back threes to get Trigg to within 63-58 with 1:01 left.
Down 68-61 with 27 seconds left, Hunter Reynolds drilled a 3-pointer. Crittenden missed a pair of free throws and Vaughn followed with his fifth 3-pointer of the game with eight seconds left to get Trigg to within one.
Case Gobin was fouled and hit one of two free throws. Trigg got one last look at winning the game but their 44th attempt from behind the arc was off the mark and sealed the Rocket win.
Vaughn finished with 34 points, 18 rebounds, and six assist for the Wildcats. He was 5-of-10 behind the arc. The rest of the team was 5-of-34.
Washed added a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Trigg shot just 32-percent from the field but was 9-of-21 in the final quarter.
Crittenden County hit 8-of-17 behind the arc but was 13-of-29 at the free throw line.
Champion led the Rockets with 29 points and six assists. Case Gobin added 10 points and 16 rebounds.
The Rockets got a big boost off the bench from Seth Guess who contributed 14 points and eight rebounds.
Crittenden County improved to 2-1 in district play.
Trigg County dropped to 1-2 in the district and will host the KME Classic Monday at Wildcat Gym.
Crittenden County 13 20 21 15– 69
Trigg County 11 17 14 25– 67
Crittenden County (4-4, 2-1) – Champion 29, Guess 14, Morgeson 11, Gobin 10, Keller 5
Trigg County (6-2, 1-2) – Vaughn 34, Washer 13, Reynolds 8, Gude 6, Linton 2, Stewart 2, Shearer 2
