Trigg County couldn’t sustain a good start and fell to Cheatham County Central 56-49 in the seventh-place game on Tuesday at the Stewart County Holiday Classic.
The Wildcats were able to attack the basket with some success in building a 17-6 first-quarter lead. Trigg was able to take advantage of five turnovers by the Cubs in the opening eight minutes.
However, a defensive switch by Cheatham Central in the second quarter made it harder to come by good looks. Not helping matters were seven second-quarter turnovers by the Wildcats.
The Cubs from Ashland City, Tennessee, opened the second frame with a 13-2 run to tie the game at 19 with 3:44 left.
Trigg moved out to a 23-19 lead, but the Cubs scored the final four points of the half to knot the game at 23-23.
The Wildcats never led in the second half as Cheatham County Central scored the first six points of the third quarter and extended its lead to 36-25.
Carter Shepherd and Clay Travis hit 3-pointers to get the Wildcats to within 38-33.
The Wildcats trimmed a five-point deficit to 50-49 on a Davaree Gude bucket with 2:00 left. The next three possessions decided the game. Cheatham Central hit a pair of free throws after a foul 40 feet from the basket. Trigg turned the ball over but got a steal. However, they missed a layup and wouldn’t score the rest of the way.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win. We stole it and then threw it right straight back out of bounds and had two bad turnovers. These kids who are making some of these mistakes are young kids. I mean, we’re still playing a lot of sophomores. We’re still trying to grow up a little bit,” Trigg County coach Michael Fraliex said.
Landon Swann led the Wildcats with 16 points and six rebounds. Gude, who didn’t play in Monday’s loss to Rossview after spraining his ankle in the tourney opener Saturday, was still visibly hobbled with the injury and scored 13 points. He also contributed six rebounds and four steals.
Travis hit a trio of threes and scored a career-high 11 points – all in the second half.
Two areas that didn’t sit well with Fraliex were 16 turnovers and minus eight in rebounds.
“If you notice one thing that team did do a good job of was boxing out. Even their smallest guy did a great job rebounding, and we just refuse to box out for some reason,” he said. “I don’t know why that is. We preach it every day. Coach (Donnie) Oliver preaches it every day. But our kids, for some reason, have just not been able to buy into that part of it yet.”
Liam Lockert scored 11 of his game-high 22 points in the second quarter for Cheatham County Central. He also had nine rebounds.
The Cubs hit 10 of 16 free throws while Trigg was just 3 of 5.
Trigg County closes out the 2025 portion of its schedule at 2-10. However, Fraliex knows his club has had trouble overcoming injuries to key players and inconsistent play, especially from the inexperienced players.
“I think most of our mistakes are correctable, just like the mistakes we made right at the end of the game. We don’t do a very good job of understanding time and score at all. I thought we rushed it a little bit there toward the end and took some shots that we probably shouldn’t have taken,” he said. “You can’t get it all back at once. You’ve got to gradually go get it by being smart, by taking good shots, and by sharing the basketball.”
Fraliex is hopeful that another obstacle will be overcome in the coming weeks as the Wildcats finally return to their home court. Renovations to Wildcat Gym have run a month behind schedule, keeping the team from practicing and playing its games there.
“I think not having a home gym has absolutely killed us. We’ve had one home game (in the middle school gym) that wasn’t in our home gym,” Fraliex said. “It’s hard on the kids. It’s hard on me. It’s hard on the coaching staff. I think once we get in our own house a little bit, get some practice time in there, get some home games going, we’ll feel a little bit better about ourselves. And I think we’ll get things moving in the right direction.”
School officials announced on Monday that Wildcat Gym should be ready for Monday’s home doubleheader with Fulton City. Doors will open at 5:00, with the girls tipping at 6:00 and the guys at 7:30.
Trigg County 17 6 10 16– 49
Cheatham Co. Central 6 17 19 14– 56
Trigg County (2-10) – Swann 16, Gude 13, Travis 11, Broussard 6, Shepherd 3
Cheatham County Central (3-11) – L. Lockert 22, Fowler 12, Bryant 10, Kesslar 6, Jennette 2, Myatt 2, B. Lockert 2
Rebounds – Trigg County 28 (Gude 6, Broussard 6, Swann 6), Cheatham County Central 36 (L. Lockert 9, Kesslar 7))
Assists – Trigg County 8 (Gude 2, Broussard 2), Cheatham County Central 14 (Myatt 4)
Steals – Trigg County 11 (Broussard 5), Cheatham County Central 7 (Fowler 2, Myatt 2).
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On Monday, Rossview scored the first 44 points of the game and rolled to an 80-24 win over the Wildcats.
The Hawks led 33-0 after one quarter and 60-10 at halftime.
The 24 points scored by the Wildcats are the fewest by a Trigg team since a 24-18 loss to Lacy in 1952.
Karmelo Dixon and Landon Swann each scored nine points for the Wildcats.
Jiyair Rose scored 25 points for Rossview, and Israel Dillard, who played at Fort Campbell last year, added 14 points.
Trigg County 0 10 12 2– 24
Rossview 33 27 15 5– 80
Trigg County (2-9) – Dixon 9, Swann 9, McCormick 3, Shepherd 3
Rossview (9-5) – Rose 25, Schwass 14, Dillard 14, Martin 9, Idzi 7, Herbek 3, Russell 2, Jaggers 2, Pernell 2, Mallett 2,
