The Hopkinsville Tigers did everything but win the game on the scoreboard at the end. After trailing by as many as 22 points in the first half, the Tigers rallied to take a 4th quarter lead, only to see McCracken County’s Trevor Winsatt bank in an off-balance 3-pointer under pressure at the horn to give the Mustangs a 55-52 win in a game that the Hopkinsville Tigers probably deserved to win. The Tigers were short-handed, playing without leading scorer James Nicholas, who was dealing with an injury.
The game started off about as good as it could for the Mustangs and about as bad as it could for the Tigers. McCracken County opened with back-to-back threes from Mitchell Guthrie and Jackson Sivills to take a 6-0 lead with less than two minutes gone. The start was part of a 16-0 run over the first five minutes of the game. Hopkinsville finally got on the board on a 3-point play from Jacarius Burks with 2:16 to go in the opening quarter. The quarter ended with McCracken up 22-5.
Both teams had trouble scoring in the opening minutes of the 2nd quarter, as a 3-point shot from Guthrie was the only basket for the first three plus minutes of the quarter. McCracken would extend the lead to as many as 22 points at 29-7. The Mustangs led 33-12 with 2:17 left, when the Tigers made a move to try and fight their way back into the game. Hopkinsville, behind solid defensive play, finished the half on a 7-3 spurt to trim the lead to 36-19 at the half. The Tigers got a couple of big steals out front from sophomore Authur McKnight to help ignite the run.
The Tigers continued their rally at the beginning of the second half behind the play of DeEvan Williams and Jacarius Burks. Williams scored 8 straight points early in the 2nd half to cut the McCracken County lead to 38-27. Burks and 8th grader Dejuan Mercer then scored the final six points of the quarter to bring the Tiger to within 45-37.
The Tiger rally then picked up steam at the beginning of the 4th quarter. With Burks and Mercer leading the way, Hopkinsville outscored the Mustangs 13-3 over the first six minutes of the final quarter to give the Tigers a 50-48 lead. Jackson Sivills and Noah Dumas made four straight free throws for McCracken to put the Mustangs back up 52-50. Jamarion Sharp scored for Hopkinsville to tie the game at 52-52 with 45 seconds left. The Tigers would get the ball back and called timeout inside of 30 seconds to go in the game. Hopkinsville worked the clock inside of 10 seconds, with Mercer driving to the basket looking to get the lead. The shot missed with Winsatt grabbing the rebound and rushing up the court to throw in his game winner.
Jacarius Burks led the way for the Tigers with 22 points in the game. Dejuan Mercer had 10. DeEvan Williams added 8 points for Hopkinsville.
Noah Dumas led McCracken County with 21 points. Jackson Sivills added 16 for the Mustangs.