The Christian County boys’ basketball team used a big fourth quarter to come from behind and beat previously undefeated Mayfield 81-74. With the win, the Colonels move to 5-1 on the season and finish 2-0 in the Toyota of Hopkinsville Classic.
The Colonels jumped out to a 7-0 lead within the first minute of the contest, only to see the Cardinals charge right back to tie it at 7. The Colonels were finding their points in transition, but were also plagued by turnovers. Mayfield turned the miscues into points, and led 19-16 after the first quarter.
In foul trouble, senior Detorrion Ware sat out the second quarter, and the Colonels were outscored 19-14 to give Mayfield a 38-30 halftime lead. Ware still led the team in points with 9, followed by senior Jordan Johnson with 5.
Ware returned in the third quarter, and wasted no time scoring 5 straight to pull the Colonels to within 40-36. Johnson took over from there, scoring 11 in the quarter, including 8 straight when the Colonels were on the verge of falling behind by double-digits. Ware rebounded his own miss just before the horn to cut the lead to 59-53 going into the final quarter.
Two and a half minutes in the fourth, the Colonels trailed 63-55 and looked to be in trouble. However, Johnson stepped up again and hit a three pointer, followed by a layup by junior forward Fred Tandy off a Ware assist to cut the deficit to 3. With the Colonels trailing by 1 at 64-63, Ware was fouled and a Mayfield player picked up a technical foul for arguing the call. Ware knocked down all four free throws to give the Colonels their first lead since early in the first quarter, at 66-64. Johnson got a steal with 3:38 left and was fouled and hit both free throws to give the Colonels a 70-64 lead. The teams went back and forth over the next three minutes, but Mayfield could never get closer than 4, and late Colonel free throws led to the final 81-74 score.
Despite only playing three quarters, Ware led all scorers with 32, just a shade over his 31.8 average. Johnson followed with 21, and sophomore guard Damikeon Mathis had 11. Junior guard DT Babb scored 7, Tandy had 6, and senior forward Kolbe Langhi and junior guard Nate McGregor added 2 each. Senior forward JaQuon Long, the team’s third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, did not play due to illness.
The Colonels return to the court on December 21 when they travel to Webster County to take part in the Baptist Health and Sports Rehab Holiday Classic. They open against 1-7 Western, and then play the 6-1 Webster County Trojans, and the 5-2 Todd County Central Rebels.
