Trailing by a basket at halftime and in danger of seeing Senior Night spoiled on Friday against visiting Warren East, the Todd County Central boys’ basketball team turned to a pair of 12th-graders in a decisive 3rd-quarter onslaught to pull away for a 61-47 victory over a Raider team that entered the contest as winners of nine of their last ten.
As he has all season, Jamison Glass came through for Todd Central, combining with fellow senior Hayden Strader to score 21 of the Rebels’ 23 points in the third quarter and avenge a 71-56 loss to the Raiders earlier this season. Warren East saw a four-game winning run come to an end to slip to 18-8 while Todd Central prevailed for the third straight outing to move to 12-13.
Down 7-2 early, senior Jaxon Addison drilled a three ahead of a bucket in the lane by Strader. The Rebels tied the game at 9-9 on a Keyshawn Moore layup, but KaJarius Barber scored six first-quarter points for the Raiders and they led 13-11 after one.
Glass’ floater tied the game again at 19-19, and Zack Robinson hit one of two free throws to give Todd Central its first lead of the night with 3:42 left in the half. Warren East answered with a 6-0 run to force a Rebel timeout before Brett Harris connected on a three-pointer inside the last minute to cut the margin to two points at the break.
Strader opened the second half with a three-pointer to spark a 7-0 spurt and put the Rebels in front for good. His jumper and bucket on the baseline stretched the lead to seven, and Glass took over from there. The Todd Central big man outscored Warren East 10-2 on his own over the last three minutes of the quarter to give the Rebels a 46-31 advantage.
Strader’s layup with 6:20 left in the game put Todd Central on the verge of a 20-point lead, but errant free-throw shooting down the stretch left the door open for Warren East to make things interesting. Raiders’ leading scorer Kaleb Prince had been quiet with only four points through the first three frames, but he got going with eight in the fourth. After the Rebels came up empty on eight straight attempts from the line, Prince scored on a drive to trim the margin to single digits with 1:42 to play. But Glass steadied the ship, going 5/6 from the charity stripe over a 25-second span to seal the win.
Glass led all scorers with 26 and was joined in double figures by Strader with 12 points. Six different players connected on at least one three-pointer for the Rebels.
Barber and Prince both finished with 12 points to lead Warren East, and Brenden Bratcher added 10.
Todd Central will look to make it four in a row on Tuesday at South Warren before hosting Allen County-Scottsville and wrapping up the regular season at Trigg County.
Warren East 13 12 6 16 — 47
Todd Central 11 12 23 15 — 61
Warren East (18-8) — Barber 12, Prince 12, Bratcher 10, Pedigo 6, Parsley 5, Summers 2
Todd Central (12-13) — Glass 26, Strader 12, Schutt 7, Addison 3, Harris 3, Reding 3, Robinson 3, Foster 2, Moore 2
