It was obvious that the Hopkinsville Tigers went into their 8th District game at Heritage Christian Monday night determined not to let the state’s leading scorer be a significant factor in the game. That task was accomplished as the Tigers rolled past the Warriors 91-51 in front of a near capacity crowd at HCA.
From the very beginning of the game, HCA’s Jason Leek, who entered the night averaging 36.5 points a game, had plenty of company every time he had his hands on the basketball. The Tigers double-teamed and occasionally triple-teamed Leek, making it virtually impossible for the senior to get anything close to a good look at the basket.
Hopkinsville opened fast, taking an 8-0 lead with 6:13 to go in the first quarter and prompting a timeout from Coach Matt McGowan.
Back-to-back threes from Jacob Morgan gave Warrior fans some early hope as HCA cut the lead to 8-6. Jason Leek made his first shot of the night making it a 14-9 Hopkinsville lead with 3:46 to go in the first. The rest of the quarter was all Tigers as the lead grew to 28-13.
The Hopkinsville defense began to take its toll on HCA as the second quarter got rolling. The Warriors could not find many openings to get a good look at a shot, and the Tigers ran the lead out to 50-21 at the half.
The focused defense on Jason Leek was doing its job for Hopkinsville. Leek had just six point at the half.
Hopkinsville’s offense had its best stretch of the night in the third quarter. Nine different Tigers scored as Hopkinsville hung 32 points on the board and the lead was 82-35 heading into the final quarter.
Reserves saw much of the action for both teams over the final 8 minutes as Hopkinsville closed out the 40 point win.
James Bradley had 14 points to lead five Tigers in double figures. Jonovan Leavell finished with 12. Jayon Bass added 11 points. Layton Giltner and Curtis Dillard scored 10 points each.
Jason Leek ended up with 18 points for HCA, just under half his average coming into the game. Jacob Morgan had 9 points. Sam Thompson and Ethan Miles scored 7 each.
Hopkinsville (9-13 overall, 4-1 district) will be back in action Friday night when the Tigers host Paducah Tilghman.
Heritage Christian (4-10 overall, 1-3 district) goes on the road Tuesday night to Crittenden County.
