BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
NAUGATUCK — The Tug Valley Panthers blew an early lead and lost for the second time this season to the Logan Wildcats, 65-58, Saturday night at the TVHS gym in Naugatuck.
Tug Valley, now 4-3 on the season, lost to Logan 84-75 back in December.
A capacity crowd squeezed into the gym to watch a battle of two of southern West Virginia’s best high school basketball programs. Tempers flared in the final seconds of the game as law enforcement and school officials had to come out onto the floor in an attempt to help calm the fans down from both schools. Prior to that, some players got into a small scuffle, which caused tension in the packed gymnasium between two competitive teams.
Tug Valley came out hot in the first quarter hitting four 3-pointers by four different players to lead 22-7 after one quarter.
The Panthers were outscored by Logan 20-11 in the second period but still took a 10-point lead into the dressing room at the half. A trey by Logan’s Scotty Browning at the end of the quarter cut the lead from 13-10 to give the Cats some hope heading into the second half.
Logan continued to be patient, hitting the boards and starting to make some shots as they battled back in the second half.
Logan, now 6-5, took its first lead of the game with 3:15 remaining in the game at 53-52, as Coach Zach Green’s team battled back in the road game environment. Logan outscored Tug Valley 24-10 in the final period.
The Wildcats hit some big baskets and some key free throws down the stretch to pull out the victory.
Tug Valley came into the game ranked No. 3 in Class A in the Coaches Poll, while Logan came in ranked No. 5 in Class AAA.
The Panthers had three players in double figures with senior Parker Davis leading the way with 17 points including a big slam dunk in the second half, sophomore Joey Gollihue scored 13 including three 3-pointers, and big junior Buddy Marcum banked in 11. Ashton Davis added eight points, Braydun Ferris five and Jon Wagoner four. Ferris dished out four assists to lead Tug in that statistic. Marcum had seven rebounds, while P. Davis had six.
For Logan, Browning had a game-high 26 points, while Cole Blankenship scored 11, Julius Clancy had nine, and Garrett Williamson chipped in eight.
Logan shot 49% from the floor and 70% at the free-throw line making 16-23. Tug Valley shot 45% from the field, including 7-19 from behind the arc for 37 %. They were 7-14 at the charity stripe for 50%.
Coach Garland “Rabbit” Thompson was obviously not pleased with his team’s second-half performance. They won’t have time to think much about it as they were scheduled to play three games this week. They host Sherman and Van Tuesday and Friday and then travel to Man on Saturday night.
Score by quarters:
Logan: 7 20 14 24 – 65
Tug: 22 11 16 10 – 58
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