By JOSH BURRIS
A 6-point lead with 3:15 remaining in the fourth quarter slipped from the Southern Wells Raiders’ grasp on Monday, resulting in a 60-58 loss to the visiting Cowan Blackhawks at The Raiderdome.
The Raiders (4-17) trailed 50-46 early in the fourth, but rattled off 10 straight points to take the lead. Dustin Woodward hit a three, Brandon Kirtley got a fastbreak layup off a steal and-1 after being fouled. Kedrik Sonnigsen and Kirtley each added fastbreak layups off Cowan turnovers after that to give their team a 56-50 lead.
And after Cowan’s Mason Kidd broke the run with a jumper and Sonnigsen answered with another bucket off a turnover, the score was 58-52 with 3:15 left to play.
From there, the Raiders were unable to come up with any more points.
It was the Raiders’ senior night and final game of the regular season, which was originally scheduled for last Friday but moved to Monday.
“We don’t do a very good job down the stretch at taking good shots situationally. In the last three minutes, I thought we took quick shots. I can think of a one-pass three that we took. I can think of a couple of turnovers where we drove it pretty aggressively into the paint and turned it over trying to kick it out of there.”
Bradley Terrell, who led all scorers with 20 points, hit a three and another jumper to cut the Raiders’ lead to 1 point with 1:30 left. Then after two missed free throws by the Raiders, Terrell again hit a shot to give his team a 59-58 lead with 48.4 seconds left.
The Raiders went to the free-throw line once again with 9.1 seconds remaining and a chance to take the lead, but both shots were off the mark once again.
Southern Wells then fouled Griffin Smith, sending him to the free-throw line for a 1-and-1 opportunity. He made the first, but missed the second to put Cowan ahead BY 2 points.
The Raiders rebounded the miss and were able to get one more shot off before the buzzer sounded, but missed, ending the game.
“We’ve got to be a little better about knowing we are up 5 or 6 with a couple minutes left and making sure that we get a layup or a bucket,” Penrod said. “They (Cowan) made two shots, and we missed some free throws.”
The Raiders had to initially dig themselves out of a hole in the first quarter before things got interesting.
After Austin Harris hit two free throws to give the Raiders a 9-7 lead, the Blackhawks rattled off 9 straight points. Jenson Nusbaumer got a layup to break that run, and Michael Hargrave got a floater to fall to give Cowan an 18-11 lead after one quarter.
“The kids played really hard, and they wanted it really bad. You could tell early on the way some of us were shooting it how far off we were. They just were nervous and anxious about senior night and wanted to be good and wanted to win for their teammates.”
Cody Thomas got the Raiders back in the game in the second quarter. Thomas led the Raiders in scoring off the bench with 11 points – 8 of them in that second quarter. He made two layups sandwiched around a Harris layup to cut Cowan’s lead to 18-17.
A layup by Thomas, followed by a layup and-1 by Sonnigsen gave Southern Wells the lead at 22-21.
A Thomas layup with 1:30 left in the half tied it up 26-26. Cole Duncan made one of two free throws, and Mason Kidd drained a three with 55 seconds left to put Cowan back ahead 30-26. Kirtley answered back with a floater, and Evan Pennington sank two free throws to make the score 30-30 at the half.
Woodward scored Southern Wells’ first 5 points of the quarter to put it ahead 35-32 early in the third.
The Blackhawks came thundering back though with a 9-2 run that put it ahead 41-37 with four minutes left. Later with 2:29 left in the quarter, Harris hit a three to tie it up 42-42. Kirtley hit another three after, and Thomas made a free throw put Southern Wells up 46-42. Terrell ended the quarter with a three before the buzzer to trim that lead to 1 point going into the fourth.
Woodward and Kirtley followed Thomas with 10 points each, and Sonnigsen added 9.
The Raiders now will head into the Class 1A Sectional 53 tournament, which will be played on their home court. The Raiders drew a first-round bye and will face the winner of Lakeland Christian and Smith Academy.
Penrod said he hopes his team can learn from its mistakes against Cowan.
“It would have been huge to win it. What we said after the game was that we’ve got to learn from it, and then this weekend if we don’t make those same mistakes in crunch time, hopefully we are cutting down the nets. If that’s the case, as much as tonight hurts, it will be worth it.”
The JV game was also competitive, with Southern Wells coming out on top 47-45. Perrin Gates led Southern Wells iwht 18 points, followed by 12 from Nick Lozoya.
sports@news-banner.com
COWAN 60, SOUTHERN WELLS 58
At Southern Wells High School
COWAN (5-15): Mason Kidd 3-8 0-0 7, Griffin Smith 1-7 4-5 6, Bradley Terrell 8-14 2-5 20, Blaine Marlatt 2-3 1-2 5, Cole Duncan 5-9 3-4 14, Michael Hargrave 1-2 0-0 2, Jackson Clifford 0-2 1-2 1, Timmy Watson 2-6 0-0 5). TOTALS: 22-51 11-18 60.
SOUTHERN WELLS (4-17): Kedrik Sonnigsen 4-9 1-5 9, Dustin Woodward 4-9 1-2 10, Jenson Nusbaumer 2-6 0-0 5, Austin Harris 2-8 2-2 6, Brandon Kirtley 4-13 1-1 10, Evan Pennington 2-4 2-2 7, Cody Thomas 5-8 1-2 11. TOTALS: 23-57 8-14 58.
Cowan 18 12 15 15 –– 60
Southern Wells 11 19 16 12 –– 58
Three-point Goals: Cowan 5-18 (Terrell 2-3, Duncan 1-2, Watson 1-4, Kidd 1-4, Hargrave 0-1, Smith 0-4), Southern Wells 4-15 (Woodward 1-1, Pennington 1-2, Nusbaumer 1-3, Kirtley 1-4, Sonnigsen 0-2, Harris 0-3). Rebounds: Cowan 41 (Clifford 7, Duncan 6, Marlatt 6, Terrell 6, Smith 5, Hargrave 3, Watson 3, Kidd 2), Southern Wells 32 (Harris 10, Woodward 5, Kirtley 5, Sonnigsen 3, Thomas 2, Pennington 1). Turnovers: Cowan 17, Southern Wells 10. Fouls: Cowan 9, Southern Wells 14. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: Southern Wells 47, Cowan 45
