Buggy rolls back to North Daviess
Jan. 21—ELNORA — In a game where most of the time the outcome means everything — Saturday was about something more. In the Buggy Bowl in front of a full capacity crowd, the Cougars beat Barr-Reeve, 63-49 and earned the the Buggy Bowl trophy for the first time since 2011, but much more importantly, the annual Coaches v. Cancer night raised a tremendous amount of money for the Knepp and Cook families from both schools who have family members that are battling cancer.
On the floor, the Cougars got 24 from Jaylen Mullen, 17 from Lance Wilson and Austin Brower, who helped lead the second half comeback with 12. Also helping to roll the Buggy back to North Daviess was Logan Wilson with seven and Braden Stickles with 3.
"We understand what their strengths are and we tried to be ready for them. We didn't panic when we got down," said ND coach Brent Dalrymple. "We made a pact with each other this year that we would believe in each other."
The Cougar win followed up a heart-breaking loss to Linton on Friday, 47-45 and pushed No. 3 ND to 14-3, while B-R fell to 9-7.
The Cougs used treys from Braden Stickles and Mullen to help build an early 8-3 lead. B-R used long balls from Kendall Graber and Donnie Miller to keep it close at 10-6.
Mullen added two baskets off steals, but B-R's Braydon Knepp and Miller both added 3s and B-R tied the game. Miller and Mullen added late basket as ND was able to take a close 21-19 lead into the half.
The second quarter started off with four unanswered Cougar points, before a Knepp layup put B-R back on the scoreboard.
Braydon Knepp tied the game with a triple at 27-all but ND's Austin Brower pushed the Cougars back into the lead. Mullen pulled ND back to with one with a free throw, but a basket from Seth Wagler sent B-R into the half with a 33-30 lead and just before the Cooks and Knepp families were honored at halftime.
Lance Wilson added two baskets to to get back in the lead and in spite of Miller's 3, Mullen and Wilson kept ND in front, 42-38 with 3:33 left in the third. Evan Wehmeier added a basket in the paint that brought B-R back to within five, but Lance Wilson added a put back in the lane to make it 47-40 with eight minutes to play.
Knepp added a triple to keep B-R close but free throws from Brower and a bucket from Mullen made it 51-43. Stickles added a huge block at 3:13 and BR coach Thompson picked up a technical and ND was able to finish off with a Logan Wilson basket and triple from Brower to make it 60-47 with 1:21. Brower stayed hot and finished of the win at 63-49.
B-R got 15 from Braydon Knepp and 13 from Donnie Miller, while Kendall Graber had nine, along with six each from Wehmeier and Seth Wagler had six each.
In the JV contest, Barr-Reeve won 43-33. The Cougars got 13 from Wyatt Bishop and seven from Kadin Stoll. The Vikes were led by Nick Kavanaugh with 13 and nine from Isaac Madison.
The Cougars travel to Clay City on Friday, while B-R goes to Shoals.
