Bishop’s 31 not enough to top Oakland
The District 7-AAA leaders proved to be too tough to tame for the Pioneer basketball team Friday night, as Warren County fell to the visiting Oakland Patriots 69-56 at the Charlie Dalton Gym.
With senior post Kyle Thompson out for the second straight game with an illness, Warren County (7-13, 0-10 district) relied on Reese Bishop for much of its offensive production. The senior guard responded with a 31-point night, but Oakland proved to have too many weapons and held the Pioneers at bay to improve to 9-1 in the league standings.
Bishop, who scored 27 points Tuesday at White County before Friday night’s game-high, credited his teammates with fighting hard for four quarters against the Patriots, and gave special recognition to fellow senior Jeremiah Hodges, who started his second straight game in place of Thompson.
“I was really impressed with everybody’s effort, and with Kyle out, I thought ‘J-Ho’ stepped up and did a great job,” Bishop said. “When we played them at Oakland, we learned they weren’t that much better than we are. That was our motivation.
“Our motto is we’ve got nothing to lose, so we decided to come out and play as hard as we could.”
The Pioneers trailed by a slim 11-9 margin early, but missed opportunities at the free-throw line allowed Oakland to pull ahead 17-10 by the end of the first quarter. Brady Neal buried a pair of 3-pointers for the Patriots in the second, but Bishop led the Pioneers with 10 points in the frame, including 8-of-10 from the line, as the Pioneers went into halftime down 32-25.
The Patriots expanded their lead to 50-36 by the end of the third quarter, and Warren County got no closer than 10 points through the game’s final stanza.
Led by Brady Neal’s 19 points, Oakland improved to 15-5 with the win, and held its share of the lead in the District 7-AAA standings. Devin Boyd added 18 points, while Ro Murray had 14.
Bishop’s 31 points led the way for Warren County, while Todd Gilley had 11 and Hodges added five. Josh Nunley scored four points, Brooks Majors had three and Brandon Adcock added two.
The Pioneers play host to Blackman Tuesday, and travel to Cookeville Friday night.