Wildcats Work Extra Again to Win District Opener

There’s one thing you can say about the Trigg County Wildcats. They have made Michael Fraliex’s first four games as head coach interesting ones.

The Wildcats held on to beat Crittenden County 72-69 in overtime on Tuesday at Wildcat Gym moving to 3-1. Two of Trigg County’s three wins have come in overtime marking the first time in program history that Trigg County has won two overtime games in December.

It wasn’t easy as Trigg County trailed by nine points at halftime to a scrappy Crittenden County squad coached by Michael’s cousin Matt.

Trigg County opened the second half with a 16-0 run and kept the Rockets off the scoreboard for the first 4:20 of the third quarter.

Trigg County built an eight-point lead toward the end of the third quarter and another seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter only to see some questionable shot selection and shoddy free-throw shooting allow the Rockets to tie the game after regulation.

In the overtime period, Landon Swann came up with steals in consecutive possessions and finished both with a dunk to put the Wildcats ahead by five points.

They would lead by as many as six in the extra period, only to see the Rockets come back and cut the deficit to 71-69 with 13 seconds left.

Davaree Gude made one of two free throws with five seconds left to put the Wildcats ahead by three and then came up with a steal on the subsequent possession to seal the Wildcat victory.

Gude led the Wildcats with 23 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals. Swann added a career-high 16 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 5 steals. Caleb Fogle scored 13 points and added 6 assists.

Trigg County had 20 steals in the game that came off 31 Crittenden County turnovers. The Wildcats converted those miscues into 30 points.

The turnovers told the story on the stat sheet as the Rockets shot 53 percent from the field including a blistering 21 of 30 inside the arc as they continually found a way to be efficient in the paint.

Camron Belcher scored 18 points for Crittenden County but fouled out midway through the fourth quarter. Brayden Poindexter had a huge night for the Rockets with 16 points and 13 rebounds and Drake Young came off the bench to hit four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.

Neither team put on a clinic at the free throw line. Trigg County was 12 of 26, while Crittenden County was 3 of 11. Both teams did hit 8 three-pointers.

For Trigg County, it’s their fourth straight win over the Rockets and it moves them to 1-0 in the district. Crittenden County drops to 0-3 and 0-1.

Trigg County has two more games this week, both on the tail end of doubleheaders. Trigg will host Stewart County Tennessee on Thursday and travel to Mortons Gap to play Hopkins County Central on Friday.

Crittenden County will host Livingston Central on Friday.