Bobcats pull away in third to top WCHS

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard

WCHS head coach Ryan Smith, foreground, looks on as Chris Weitzel defends Greenbrier’s Kurt Caton (5) during the second half of Monday night’s game in Gallatin. (Rob Nunley photo)

GALLATIN – A third-quarter run by the Greenbrier Bobcats put the Pioneer basketball team in a hole they couldn’t crawl out of Monday night, as Warren County eventually fell 49-40 in the Sumner Sports Medicine Christmas Classic.

Monday’s first half was close from the opening tip, with both teams limiting their opponent’s offensive chances. The Pioneers took an early 4-0 lead, but the Bobcats answered with two buckets from Kurt Caton and a free throw from Lance Adams, taking the lead at 5-4.

Adam Wood gave WCHS (5-5) a brief lead with a bucket at the 39-second mark, but Brooks Raushenberger scored for the Bobcats with 18 ticks remaining, ending the first quarter with the teams tied at 7-7.

Josh Moore opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer, and Ben Dunn added another to give the Pioneers a 15-10 lead, but the Bobcats out-scored WCHS 8-1 over the final 3:16 of the first half, and led 18-16 at the break.

Adams converted a three-point play to open the third quarter, and the Bobcats went on a 12-2 run against a Pioneer lineup consisting of sophomores Moore, Chris Weitzel, Chase Officer, Donta Weir and Ryan Daniel, who had been brought on in place of the five upperclassmen who started the half.

A baseline jumper from Ty Lynch with half a second left ended the third quarter with Greenbrier on top 36-24, and the Bobcats put together six unanswered points to start the fourth. WCHS made a late run, with Shay Glenn scoring 10 of his game-high 12 points over the final 3:35 of the contest, but they were unable to trim the Bobcat lead to single digits until the game’s final nine seconds, when Moore scored what would prove to be the final basket of the night.

Caton led Greenbrier with 14, while Lynch had 11 and Adams scored 10. Jay Spurlock had seven points, Raushenberger had four and Geoffrey Sanders added three.

Dunn finished with eight for WCHS, while Moore and Wood had five apiece. Majors had four, while Officer, Weir and Weitzel each had two. Pioneer junior Jonathan Morris went down with a knee injury during the first quarter of play, and was scheduled for a doctor’s visit on Tuesday to determine the extent of any damage.

The Pioneers were slated to wrap up their portion of the Classic Tuesday night, with a game against Station Camp.