Late free throws sink Bears

By JERRY SCOTT/Staff

Corey Lowe sank a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left to lift visiting Narrows past Bland County 48-47 in MED boys’ basketball action played on Jan. 26 at Bland High School. Lowe’s game-winning shots culminated a second half rally that saw the Green Wave rebound from a 24-18 halftime deficit.
The win improved the Green Wave to 9-8 overall and secured sole possession of second place in the MED at 5-2. Bland County dropped to 4-3 in the MED and 8-9 overall.
Bland County scored seven of the game’s first eight points as Ethan Reed took assists from Jared Hagan and Tyler Eastep for easy hoops early on. Narrows fought back to within 7-5 when David Thompson tipped in a Lowe miss but the Bears ran off eight straight points to end the first period on top 15-5.
The second stanza saw Narrows outlast the Bears 13-9 to close to within six by halftime. The Bears led 20-14 when Kristopher Kennedy put back his own miss with a layup with 1:29 left in the first half but Narrows used putback baskets from Thompson and Cody Reed to close to within 20-18 before Kennedy hit two free throws and Eastep scored off a Korey Kennedy assist to up the lead to six at the break.
Narrows kept the pressure on in the third period and used a 16-10 scoring margin to knot the score 34-34 heading to the fourth period. Thompson arched in a trey at the 6:21 mark of the stanza that severed the Bears’ lead to 26-25 and the Green Wave eventually tied it on a Brett Buracker hoop at the 5:11 mark. Narrows later led for the first time when Buracker’s trey make it 34-32 with 1:32 left in the stanza.
The entire fourth quarter went back and forth between the two evenly matched squads. Buracker’s 3-point play 22 seconds into the period had Todd Lusk’s club up 37-34 but the Bears responded with free throws from Josh Shrader and Kyle Kennedy as well as a Kristopher Kennedy layup to retake the lead 39-37 with 3:38 left.
Eastep fed Shrader for a 3-point play as the Bears led 42-38 by the 2:52 mark and the lead stretched to 46-40 on a pair of Kyle Kennedy free throws with 1:47 remaining. It was then that the game took a dramatic turn.
Cody Reed and Thompson buried back-to-back treys in a span of 33 seconds as Narrows tied it 46-46. The Bears’ Kristopher Kennedy hit the first of two free throws, giving the lead back to the Bears with 29 seconds left, but Lowe canned a pair himself 10 seconds later as Narrows led 48-47. Two missed foul shots by Shrader with eight seconds left and a Bears’ turnover with 1.6 seconds to go sealed the win for Narrows.
Thompson led Lusk’s cagers with 17 points, six more than Buracker’s 11. Lowe and Reed tallied eight markers each.
Kristopher Kennedy paced Bland County with 14 points and Kyle Kennedy added 10 points. Shrader had seven rebounds and Eastep five assists.

NARROWS (5-2, 9-8) 48
D. Reed 2 0-0 4, Lowe 2 3-6 8, Thompson 7 1-1 17, Buracker 4 2-3 11, C. Reed 4 0-1 8, Morris 0 0-0 0, Martin 0 0-0 0, Taylor 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 19 6-11 48

BLAND COUNTY (4-3, 8-9) 47
Shrader 2-5 4-7 8, Mercer 0-0 1-2 1, Eastep 3-9 0-1 6, Hagan 1-3 0-0 2, E. Reed 2-2 0-0 4, Pennington 0-0 0-0 0, Kr. Kennedy 4-8 5-7 14, Ky. Kennedy 1-9 7-10 10, Ko. Kennedy 1-4 0-0 2, Leighton 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS 14-41 17-27 47

Narrows 5 13 16 14-48
Bland County 15 9 10 13-47

3-point goals: Lowe, Buracker, Thompson (2), Kr. Kennedy, Ky. Kennedy
BC rebounds: 22 (Shrader 7)
BC assists: 9 (Eastep 5)
BC steals: 9 (Ky. Kennedy 4)
Total fouls: Narrows 20, BC 17
Fouled out: none