Beavers overcome drought, rally past Fountain Lake
FOUNTAIN LAKE — Glen Rose suffered a massive shooting slump and lived to tell about it.
The Beavers went 12 minutes, 11 seconds without a made field goal, but finished on an 8- 0 run to rally past Fountain Lake for a 35- 32 3A- 5 conference victory Thursday night at Bass Gymnasium.
“At the end of the third, I just told them, ‘ Hey fellas, we just scored two points, and we’re still in the game’” Glen Rose coach Chad Pitts said. “That doesn’t happen very often. I thought defensively, we did a good job shutting down their good players. … I felt like defense won the game tonight, and then late in the game, we did a good job executing.”
The Beavers ( 7- 12, 3- 8) missed their final seven shots of the first half and their first eight of the second, going the entire third quarter without a field goal. The Cobras ( 5- 13, 1- 10) took advantage, building a 28- 23 lead after three by overcoming a 21- 18 halftime deficit.
Dillon Lequieu’s basket in the first minute of fourth finally snapped the drought, and Glen Rose cut the deficit 28- 27 on back- to- back buckets. Sam Crutchfield drained a three- pointer to push the lead back out to five at 32- 27, but the Cobras then didn’t score for the remaining 3: 36 for three straight sub- 40 scoring outings.
“It’s frustrating because we’re just out- of- sync right now,” said Fountain Lake coach Jake Dettmering, seeing his team’s losing streak stretch to nine games. “We’re either playing passive when we should be attacking, or we’re not picking our spots and being aggressive and forcing things. It’s one extreme or the other, so offensively, it was very frustrating tonight.”
Glen Rose had the answer to Crutchfield’s trey, scoring two points in back- to- back possessions. Fountain Lake missed the front end of a one- and- one with 55 seconds left, setting the stage for Lequieu’s game- winning hook shot with 37 seconds to play.
Lequieu finished with eight points and nine rebounds, respectively recording six and seven in the second half despite dealing with foul trouble most of the night.
“We need him to be out of the court as much as possible, and that’s why it hurts when he gets into foul trouble,” Pitts said. “You saw that in the first half, he goes into a funk, and in the third quarter, he picks up a quick one and in the fourth, he picks up a quick one. Whenever he’s on the floor, we’re a better team.”
Glen Rose’s football team, Class 3A runner- up the past two years, was known to have a strong running game this year, and its basketball team used runs Thursday night to build as much as a 10- point lead in the first half before the bottom dropped out on its offense. The Beavers put together an 8- 0 run in the middle of the first quarter for an 8- 3 lead and an 11- 2 surge that spanned the first and second periods for a 19- 9 advantage before Fountain Lake ended the first half on a 6- 0 spurt that turned into 14 unanswered with an 8- 0 run to start the second half.
Austin Montgomery led Glen Rose with nine points and six assists, capping its final run with a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left. Jeremy Doll added eight points, finishing the 11- 2 first- half run with back- to- back threes. Crutchfield led the Cobras with a game- high 11 points. Fountain Lake’s games Friday at Episcopal Collegiate were postponed and rescheduled Feb. 15. The Cobras and Lady Cobras ( 12- 6, 7- 4) host Jessieville Tuesday.