To say the Caldwell County Tigers got off to a bit of a tough start Thursday night at Blazer Gym might be putting it lightly. The Tigers found themselves in an early double-digit hole and then fought their way back into the game and took an 84-71 win over University Heights.
The first few minutes of the game were all Blazers and about as bad as they could be for Caldwell County. UHA got a great start from Hayden Hunt and the Tigers had the turnover flu to start the game. That combination led to the Blazers bolting out to a 12-0 lead.
During that run, the Tigers turned the ball over four times in less than two minutes to open the contest.
Once Caldwell County settled down from the shaky start, the Tigers quickly found their way back into the game. Caldwell County outscored UHA 14-5 to finish the first, including scoring the final six points, to quickly chew the lead down to 17-14.
The momentum carried over into the second quarter as the Caldwell County three-point shooting started to heat up. An 8-3 spurt put the Tigers up for the first time of the night at 22-20. Caldwell kept rolling behind the play of Daelyn Lander, Yvenson Thomas, and Pax Aikins and pushed the lead out to as many as seven points in the second at 32-25.
Keshawn Moore sparked a Blazer comeback that closed to within 32-31 before Caldwell County closed the second with a 6-1 blitz to take a 38-32 lead into the break.
A big half for Daelyn Lander for the Tigers, scoring 11 points and knocking down three from behind the arc. Dayton Wilson, Landon Mitchell, and Yvenson Thomas all had five points in the half.
UHA got 10 from Keshawn Moore in the first 16 minutes. Hayden Hunt added 6, but all came early in the game as the Caldwell County defense limited his opportunities from that point on in the first half. Jaiden Miles was strong inside with 6 points and 5 rebounds in the half.
The Tigers kept the good mojo from the end of the first half as the third quarter got started. A quick 5-0 run led to an early quarter timeout from the Blazers as the lead hit double figures at 43-32.
UHA got a big quarter from Keshawn Moore, who had 10 points, but it was not enough to overcome the outside shooting from the Tigers. Caldwell County added three more shots from behind the arc to its total as the Tigers took a 60-51 lead into the final eight minutes of the night.
The two teams played pretty much even for the first half of the final quarter, but the problem was that the Blazers needed to be cutting into the lead, not just staying even. As the game hit the four-minute mark, Caldwell County held a 12-point lead at 71-59.
With the lead at 10 at 71-61, Daelyn Lander drilled a potential dagger 3 that made it 74-61 with just over 3 minutes to go. But, Lander then fouled out seconds later to end his night with 21 points and 6 rebounds.
However, the Blazers could not mount a late charge and got no closer than 10 points the rest of the way as Caldwell County took the 13-point win.
Outside of Lander’s 21 points, Caldwell County got 15 points from Landon Mitchell. Pax Aikins add 14 points. Markese Wilson ended up with a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Keshawn Moore had another big night for UHA with 29 points. Jaiden Miles with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers. Hayden Hunt finished up with 12 points and 7 rebounds.
Caldwell County improves to 11-9 with the win and is set to take on Christian County Friday night at home.
UHA falls to 6-11 and is now set to take on Mayfield Saturday at the Akridge Ace Jam at Lyon County.
