Opening up the First Region boys basketball tournament Wednesday night was a battle of two 20+ win teams in McCracken County and Graves County. With both teams wanting to play two very different paces of basketball, it came down to who would play their pace more efficiently. The Mustangs would do just that, coming out with a 40-34 victory.
“We knew this was going to be a tough battle tonight,” McCracken County head coach Dustin Roberts said. “Graves is a good team, has good players and a good staff. We knew they were going to throw something a little different at us and they did, which threw us off early but our guys adjusted and made the plays they needed to down the stretch.”
Graves came out ready to play nice and slow, holding the ball and waiting for the Mustangs to come to them. McCracken wanted to play at a higher tempo, but took a minute to find that tempo. After a few Eagle possessions, the Mustangs brought the defensive pressure, forcing Graves to move the ball and put up shots that wouldn’t fall early on.
McCracken led 12-4 after the first eight minutes. Junior Dylan Jackson had five of those early 12 on his way to a 10-point night to lead the Mustangs and earn himself Most Outstanding Player of the Game.
“This was a tough one,” Jackson said. “We knew Graves had a bunch of players that could go out there and score the ball pretty well, but overall I feel like the team trusted coach Roberts game plan and put it to use.”
Junior Braden Waller took matters into his own hands in the early moments of the second quarter, completing a successful and three-point play and following it up with a 3-pointer to cut it to a 12-10 ballgame. Jackson would answer back with a deep ball of his own, but Waller would work the paint with his own double to keep things interesting.
Waller led all scorers on the night, posting a 12-point performance.
With a halftime score of 17-12 in favor of the Mustangs, the ballgame was far from put away for McCracken nor out of reach for Graves.
With both teams still trying to play at the own pace, foul shots would make up the majority of McCracken County’s points in the third, while Taytum Holland nailed a 3-pointer to go along with four free throws from his teammates.
The Mustangs were able to start their pull away in the third, outscoring the Eagles 11-7 for a 28-19 ballgame heading into the final frame.
Quarter four was where Graves County senior Lukas Pigg came alive as he looked to keep now only the Eagles season alive, but also his own high school career. He would knock down nine of his 11 points in the final eight minutes of play.
The Eagles would also step up their defensive effort in a big way, meeting the Mustangs at the inbound pass and playing them the length of the floor. Despite the added defense, the Mustangs still controlled their way down the floor with Jackson Klope finding his mojo down the stretch. He would tally nine points on the night, five of which came in the fourth quarter.
Graves would result to the foul game as the clock wound down from the one minute mark leading to the Mustangs going 4-for-8 from the stripe.
With the Mustangs shooting foul shots, the Eagles found their points from deep on the other end with the 3-pointers from Pigg and Briley VeuCasovic to cut the game to 38-32 with 12 seconds to go.
From there a pair of Connor Miller free throws would make it 40-32 and a Pigg layup would cap off the night 40-34 in favor of the Mustangs.
“We’ve talked to our kids about the schedule that we’ve had all season long tha’ts prepared them for this,” Roberts said. “They haven’t had any off nights. We’ve played good team after good team, so they were ready for this one.”
With the victory, McCracken County (25-7) advances to the semifinal matchup of the Mercy Health First Region tournament against Murray High School (24-9) with the stage set for a 1 p.m. Saturday tip-off at the CFSB Center.
McCracken County 12 5 11 12 — 40
Graves County 4 8 7 15 — 34
MCHS: D. Jackson 10, J. Klope 9, G. Parrish 8, C. Fulcher 8, C. Miller 5.
GCHS: B. Waller 12, L. Pigg 11, B. VeuCasovic 5, D. Hughes 3, T. Holland 3.