Hopkins County Central hosted the semifinal round of the Kentucky 2A Section 1 Tournament on Monday night, and they matched up with Webster County. Despite having home court advantage, the Storm ended up losing to the Trojans 64-46.
Both teams got off to a slow start in the first quarter, as the score was just 6-4 in favor of the Storm with three left to play. By the end of the first eight minutes, the Trojans had tied it up at eight apiece.
Devante Jagoe scored five of the team’s points in the quarter, while Samari Pettus scored the other three.
The second period had much more scoring, but unfortunately for the Storm, it was mostly Webster County. Channing Stone had almost half of the team’s points in the quarter with six, but that did not stop the Trojans from taking a 28-21 lead into the halftime break.
The Trojans took a 10-point lead early in the third and forced a Central timeout, and they then made a three right out of that time. The Storm made a bit of a comeback to cut the lead to seven, but the Trojans pushed back and extended that lead to 11 by the start of the fourth.
The lead remained at 10 points with four minutes left to play in the final quarter, and it kept growing. By the time the buzzer sounded, the Trojans had taken full control, and that led them to a 64-46 victory to advance.
They will play the winner of Murray High and Calloway County in the final round.
Hopkins County Central have now lost two of their last three games, while Webster has won their last three.
The leading scorer for the Storm was Stone with 17, with 11 of those points coming in the second half. Jagoe and Pettus were also both able to get into double-digits with 12 and 11, respectively.
This is the second time in a row that Webster has gotten the better of Hopkins Central, and the Storm will get a couple chances at revenge with two more matchups with the Trojans this season.
But for now, the team will focus on bouncing back on Monday, January 12, against the Blazers of University Heights. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. at University Heights Academy.
