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January 14, 2012
Pulaski holds off No. 11 Warriors, 87-82
Taylor Gover scores 36, David Kapinga scores 29

By DOUG EADS, CJ Correspondent
Commonwealth Journal

Somerset — The 12th Regional Tournament will take place in a few weeks and will conclude in early-March, but don’t tell that to the Pulaski County Maroons or Southwestern Warriors.

Last night at The Wigwam, both PC and Southwestern played like there was no tomorrow in a game that had all the intensity and drama of a regional championship contest between two of the top clubs in the 12th Region, who just happen to be bitter rivals.

And, last night was just chapter one in this rivalry, with another game on the schedule in four weeks between the two.

First, for last night’s mammoth battle in round one of this rivalry.

Al Gover’s club got a monster night from Taylor Gover and Kody Johnson, and as a result, PC would never trail in the game, on its way to a hard-fought, 87-82 victory over homestanding Southwestern.

However, it didn’t come easy for the Maroons, and it didn’t end without its fair share of drama.

Pulaski County led the Warriors 67-49 after three periods of play, but Steve Wright’s squad made a furious fourth quarter rally to cut the deficit down to a single digit, but couldn’t get over the proverbial hump, as the Maroons handed the Warriors their first loss of the season against a 12th Regional opponent, running their winning streak to four games in a row over their cross-town county rival.

With the win, the Maroons also improved to 11-7 overall on the season, and ran their winning streak to four games in a row.

Head coach Al Gover was just glad his team was able to escape The Wigwam with a hard-fought victory, after seeing a 22-point lead whittled down to just one point inside the game’s final minute.

“We’re not as deep as they (Southwestern) are, and they kept bringing people in,” stated Gover.

“I thought we played an excellent first half — we shot the ball extremely well, and we were getting to the basket pretty well, and I think our quickness gave them some problems early in the game,” pointed out the PC coach. “In the second half, we kind of slacked off and weren’t as aggressive to the basket, and I think that kind of caught up with us.”

In that first half coach Gover referred to, his starting point guard — Taylor Gover — simply went off against the Warriors.

Gover, the player, outscored Southwestern all by himself at the end of the first period, scoring 15 of his game-high 36 points in the opening frame, helping PC to double up the score over Southwestern at the end of one quarter of play, 24-12.

In the second frame, getting help from the other 2/3 of ‘The Three Amigo’s’ — Kody Johnson and Tyler Goins who combined for 24 points in the first half, while Gover notched 22 points all by himself — PC built its lead up to as many as 22 points late in the first half.

However, thanks to a steal and layup by Southwestern’s Isaiah Collier just before the horn sounded, the Warriors went into the break down by 17 to PC, trailing the Maroons 48-31 at the intermission.

And, despite the fact that his club made that furious rally in the fourth quarter to get the deficit down to just one point, Southwestern’s Steve Wright lamented that for whatever reason, his club didn’t come ready to play in this county rivalry in the first half of play.

“We didn’t do a very good job tonight, and I didn’t have my team ready to go,” stated Wright, after his club fell to 14-4 on the year with the loss to PC.

“I don’t know what the problem was early in the game, but we just didn’t come out with the same intensity that we normally do,” added the SWHS head coach. “It’s hard to explain and I don’t have an excuse for it. We were flat-footed early in the game and we got behind, and then we just kept gradually getting further and further behind — we never played with any real desire early in the game, and it’s my job to have our team ready, and we weren’t ready at the beginning tonight.”

Leading the Warriors by that 17-point margin at the intermission, PC maintained its double digit lead in the third stanza, despite the fact to no one’s surprise that this one got very physical with these two 12th Regional powers battling for some big-time bragging rights.

Just how physical did it get?

For the game, the two teams were whistled for a combined 56 fouls, and attempted 75 free throws between them, with PC hitting an amazing, 42 of 49 charity tosses for the contest.

Still, the Warriors cut into the PC lead, thanks in large part to Daulton Marlow, who scored 10 of his 11 points in the third stanza in an attempt to get his club off the mat.

Marlow ignited a modest spurt by the Warriors to cut the PC lead down to 60-47 late in the third frame, but he was hit for his first technical foul of the night with :53 remaining in the stanza, and after that call, the Maroons scored seven consecutive points, extending its lead back out to 20 points, 67-47.

With 7:14 left in the game, Marlow was ejected after getting called for his second technical foul of the night, and after Kody Johnson’s three-point play just moments later, PC lead the Warriors by a comfortable margin of 74-58.

Despite the fact his club had a 16-point advantage with just over six minutes left on the clock, coach Gover says he knew the Warriors were not going to go away.

“We told our team before the game that there were going to be runs — we told them that Southwestern was going to make them and we were going to make them,” remarked the PC coach.

“I told our guys that we had to keep our composure when those runs would happen,” added Gover. “We would have called a timeout coming down the stretch, but we only had the one timeout left and wanted to save it as long as we could. We knew they were going to come at us and come at us hard. We didn’t handle their pressure very well down the stretch, and that’s something that we’re going to have to work on.”

Meanwhile, Southwestern’s David Kapinga, who led his club with 29 points for the game, went to work coming down the home stretch of the contest.

A Kapinga three got the PC lead down to single digits at 78-69 midway through the fourth stanza, but Gover answered that trey with one of his own, easing the lead back to 81-69 in favor of the Maroons with 3:36 remaining in the game.

Kapinga and Justin Edwards then hit a pair of free throws each, once again cutting the deficit down to single digits at 81-73.

However, Tyler Goins’ two free throws extended the PC lead back out to 10 points, at 83-73.

That’s when things got interesting late, as Southwestern made one final run.

Justin Epperson’s basket trimmed the lead down to 83-75, and then Kapinga added another trey and scored on a steal and layup, that simply brought the house down.

Kapinga’s layup brought the Warriors to within a single point of PC, 83-82 with :48 remaining in the game, forcing Gover to call his final timeout of the night.

Coming out of that timeout, Taylor Gover was fouled with :25 left in the contest, and calmly sank both of his free throw attempts, extending the lead out to 85-82.

On the next trip downcourt, Pulaski County elected not to foul, and Southwestern’s Adam Isaacs got a great look from the left wing from behind the arc, but his shot bounced high off the rim, Gover rebounded the ball and was fouled with :05 left, and made two more free throws to give the Maroons their final margin of victory in an absolute classic, 87-82.

“I think we came from 23 or 24 down and cut the lead down to one, and I think that should tell us something about our team,” stated coach Wright.

“Still, it’s just real disappointing to play a game in your own county, and you don’t come ready to play — that’s just very disappointing,” added the Warrior head coach. “It’s really hard to explain if you think about it. Normally, in a game like this as a coach, you really don’t have to say very much. It’s pretty discouraging, but we’ve just got to chalk it up as a loss and move on to the next one.”

Gover led all scorers with his game-high 36 points, while Kody Johnson continued his stellar play with 27 points, and Goins added 12 points for the victorious Maroons.

Kapinga paced Southwestern with 29 points, while Marlow added 11 points, and Justin Epperson chipped in with 10 points.

Pulaski County will return to action on Monday night hosting Mercer County at The PC Gym at 7:30 p.m., while Southwestern will try to bounce back on the road next Tuesday night at Russell County.