By RYAN WALKER
PONETO — An 18-point comeback still was not enough to salvage a heartbreaker on Southern Wells’ Senior Night in a 47-44 defeat over Cowan.
As Raiders’ (8-14) head coach Joel Roush described it, his team scratched and fought through a Blackhawks (10-11) team that had the three of the tallest players on the floor at all times, led by 6’10” Cole Duncan.
“That’s the thing I’ve never not been proud of this team,” Roush said after the game. “They scrap and fight and we’re outsized, and tonight pretty significantly. We battle and we scrap and we fight and it means something to these guys and I want those guys on my side all the time. I don’t want guys that just do it because they enjoy it. This place means something to our people, to this school. Those are the people I want in my life.”
The Raiders did have their chances to tie it. Cowan’s Mason Kidd missed three of his four free-throw attempts with 12 seconds remaining in the game, aided by Duncan’s offensive rebound. His only make was the third shot to make it a guaranteed three-point chance at the buzzer for the Raiders to tie.
Roush used a timeout to design a play for Chandler Oswalt, who got a slightly contested spot on the right wing that went just right of the rim to end the game.
“We wanted to get Evan (Pennington) off of a ball screen with Perrin (Gates), and then we wanted him to come down and hit Chandler’s man and get it on a dribble handoff. And you saw we executed it pretty real well, but it just didn’t go.”
Cowan played bully ball with Southern Wells the entire night. It took an early advantage midway through the first quarter and not letting go for a long time.
As a team, Cowan outrebounded Southern Wells 45-30 — Duncan with 19, Griffin Smith with nine and Gentry Graves with six, who would all be the tallest Raider on the team if they swapped uniforms.
The Raiders tried to play physical and disrupt the 6’10” big man, but Duncan got his double-double late in the second quarter.
At halftime, it was a close, but not promising nine-point deficit, and the Blackhawks came out hot in the third.
Duncan got two buckets in a row in the middle of Smith’s free throws and a make by Zack Lawson. The lead stretched out to 18 at the time, and Roush needed to put out the fire with a timeout.
Not only did he put out the fire, but they caught it too.
CJ Reber got free for a quick jump shot in front of the basket on an inbounds play. Then, Duncan picked up his third foul and checked out of the game. After he left, the Raiders ramped up their pace of play and ran with it.
Reber knocked down a triple, and Gates scored underneath without the big wall to stop them.
Cowan head coach Aaron Graves threw Duncan back into the game after only sitting for two minutes, but the Raiders were still rolling.
Oswalt hit on back-to-back threes to trinkle the lead down to 36-29. Pennington split free-throw attempts and Reber hit a fastbreak layup. Duncan ended the third quarter with a basket close to the hoop, but Southern Wells did its damage and turned a once 18-point deficit to a manageable 38-32 score all within the same quarter.
On his Senior Night, the fourth quarter was Pennington’s time.
The Raiders’ second-leading scorer on the season scored six of the next eight points and regained the lead with 4:10 left. The Blackhawks didn’t see any points until Jayden Terry’s three went in right after.
The two traded leads over the next three minutes, but then Kidd sized up his defender, squared off a deep three at the top of the key and swished it home. That put Cowan up 46-44, and ended up being the dagger.
It spoiled what could have been a miraculous comeback story in front of the packed Raider Dome. Roush wasn’t disappointed in his team, rather, he was quite proud of the group he watched grow as an assistant and now as a head coach.
“We talked before the game — we wanted to leave a good impression on our fans, on our student body, on our parents and on our community,” Roush said. “And I thought our effort tonight was really, really good and I feel like we made those people proud. I’m so proud of our seniors, they’ve really committed. They’ve done what we’ve asked them to do, and they’ve accepted the roles that we’ve asked them to accept and honestly, it’s been an honor to coach them.”
Pennington led the Raiders with 15 points and four rebounds. Oswalt finished with 11 points and four rebounds.
The Raiders have now dropped two in a row heading into sectionals.
Southern Wells will kick off the sectional its hosting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27 against Southwood.
Southern Wells won the junior varsity game 20-18 in two quarters. Trey Slusher and Landon Johnson scored seven points each.
ryan@news-banner.com
COWAN 47, SOUTHERN WELLS 44
At Southern Wells
COWAN (10-11): Cole Duncan 10-17 0-3 20, Jayden Terry 2-8 0-0 10, Mason Kidd 3-12 1-6 9, Griffin Smith 3-9 1-2 7, Zack Lawson 2-3 0-1 2, Gentry Graves 1-4 0-0 2. TOTALS: 21-55 2-12 44.
SOUTHERN WELLS (8-14): Evan Pennington 7-9 1-5 15, Chandler Oswalt 4-20 0-0 11, CJ Reber 3-8 2-2 9, Perrin Gates 2-4 0-0 4, Andrew Aker 1-10 0-0 3, Joshua Aulbach 1-1 0-0 2, Caleb Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Landon Johnson 0-3 0-0 0.TOTALS: 18-56 3-7 47.
Cowan 11 14 13 9 –– 47
S. Wells 9 7 16 12 –– 44
Three-point FG: Cowan 3-13 (Kidd 2-7, Terry 1-2, Smith 0-3, Graves 0-1), Southern Wells 5-24 (Oswalt 3-10, Reber 2-6, Aker 1-7, L. Johnson 0-1). Rebounds: Cowan 45 (Duncan 19, Smith 9, Kidd 6, Graves 5, Terry 4, Lawson), Southern Wells 30 (Aker 9, Gates 7, Reber 5, Oswalt 4, Pennington 4, C. Johnson 1). Turnovers: Cowan 11, Southern Wells 4. Fouls: Cowan 9, Southern Wells 10. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: none.
JV: 18-16 Southern Wells.
