Third-quarter turnovers doom Eagles
FOUNTAIN LAKE — Eight turnovers changed the entire flow of the game as Perryville took a comefrom-behind victory over Cutter Morning Star Tuesday afternoon in the Fountain Lake Christmas Classic at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium.
The Eagles (10-3, 3-0 2A-7) led Perryville 26-21 at intermission after the Mustangs (7-6, 2-1 3A-5) closed out the first half on a 6-3 spurt.
Perryville opened the second half by slowly chipping away at the Eagles’ lead, pulling within 30-28 with just over two minutes off the clock. Hayden McDougal hit a personal 5-0 spurt to push Cutter Morning Star out to a 35-28 lead before a spate of turnovers allowed the Mustangs to hit a 14-0 run to close out the quarter with a 42-35 lead.
“Eight turnovers in the third quarter leads to a big run, and the few things that we just talked about right there are, you know, little things, not basketball things,” Cutter Morning Star head coach Beau Brickell said. “‘Where’s the leadership? Where’s the discipline? Who’s the guy that brings everybody together and talks about what we need to fix?’ So that’s really what I thought swung the momentum in the game is we lacked focus in the third quarter, and it ended up biting us in the rear.”
KJ McDaniel had a putback to open the final quarter and quell the bleeding somewhat, but Perryville went on another 5-0 spurt to take a 47-37 lead before Clayton Weldon found McDougal on the perimeter to pull within 47-40. Perryville’s Pedro Torres hit a layup with 4:11 to go before the Eagles got some good fortune when Brodey Thessing knocked McDougal down on a 3-point attempt.
McDougal sank all three free throws to cut the spread back down to six, but that was the last points for the Eagles as the Mustangs closed out the frame on a 6-0 run.
“We came out and played hard, which I told my guys, ‘You know, we’ve really got to just shut down (McDougal), (McDaniel) and then (Weldon),’ and we did that,” said Perryville head coach Wesley Kuhn. “You know, they did what I asked him to do and played tough on defense and came out with a win.”
The Eagles took an early 7-2 lead before the Mustangs tied it up around the three-minute mark. McDaniel converted a 3-point play to give Cutter Morning Star a 10-7 lead with 2:34 to go before Perryville
pushed out to an 11-10 lead, McDougal hitting a 3-pointer with less than five seconds remaining to take the 13-11 lead into the second.
Kuhn said that the pressure and speed that the Eagles brought out early hurt his team in the first half until it adjusted.
“Once we settle in on it a little bit, we can play with anybody,” he said. “It’s just, are we going to handle that, or are we going to back off from it? Tonight we handled it.”
Perryville continued to pester the Eagles early, tying the game up just 1:03 into the second quarter, but an 8-0 run pushed the Eagles out to a 21-13 lead that they did not relinquish until after the break. The Mustangs closed out the frame on an 8-5 spurt to take a five-point deficit into the break.
Brickell said that the team focused too much on the individual instead of the team.
“We just played our own game instead of doing the things that have got us to where we are,” he said. “You know, I think if we were a little more keen on being where we were supposed to be offensively and doing what we’re supposed to do defensively, we would have been, you know, on the other side of it, you know. But credit to them; he did a great job. He coached them well, and they’re tough. I mean, they just flat out-efforted us today.”
Torres led Perryville with 13 points, a steal and a rebound, and Thessing and Cade Spinks added 11 each with Thessing adding six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a rebound while Spinks had seven boards, a block and a steal. Tate Jone added 10 points with seven rebounds, four steals and an assist.
McDougal led all scorers with 22 points and four rebounds, McDaniel added 15 points with four rebounds, an assist and a steal, and Weldon tallied four points with six boards and two assists. Garner Thornton added two points with three boards and an assist.