OLA -- Fountain Lake could not buy a bucket Thursday night as the Cobras took on the Booneville Bearcats in the 3A-4 district final at Gator Fieldhouse.
The Cobras (23-6, 11-4) made just 8 of 41 shots from the field, 19.5 percent, and just one of their 10 shots at the free throw line as the Bearcats (26-2, 15-0) claimed the school's second basketball district title with a 41-21 victory.
"I couldn't be much prouder," said Booneville head coach Ronnie Denton. "We'll see how far we can go."
The Bearcats forced the Cobras to look for sub-par shots in the first quarter. A putback by junior guard Colton McMullin following a missed 3-pointer by senior guard Jordan Mungle put the Cobras on the board first just under a minute into the game. The Bearcats had a 5-2 lead by the 6:12 mark before senior guard Joe Murphy found Mungle outside for a trey to knot the score with 5:32 to go.
Booneville then went on a 7-0 run before Murphy hit a 3-pointer of his own off an assist from McMullin to pull within 12-8 with 43 seconds remaining in the first period. The Bearcats made one more shot with five seconds left to take a 14-8 lead into the second quarter.
"We played about as poorly as we could play -- turned the ball over, didn't shoot it well," said Fountain Lake head coach Jake Dettmering. "Our defense wasn't very good.
"We missed some free throws; we missed layups. We looked like we pressed early, and when some shots didn't fall early, we started pressing more. It kind of snowballed on us, and we never really snapped out of it. We played hard. I think my kids played hard, but we just didn't execute. We weren't crisp."
Booneville went on another 7-0 run to take a 21-8 lead before Murphy hit another shot from distance to cut the spread to 10 with 1:46 left in the half. Booneville took a 23-11 lead into the break.
Denton said 6-5 senior Blakley Cobb is usually the team's leading scorer, but the team is at its best with a variety of scorers. The coach said he encouraged seniors Grant Goers and Nate Riley before the game.
"Both of them stepped up and played really good defense, hit some big shots," Denton said. "Once we get going, we're hard to stop. Our confidence kept building and building."
Senior guard Ahman Johnson drew three fouls while shooting in the second period, but his shots would not fall as he did not put up any points until the second half. Murphy's six in the first half were enough to lead the Cobras as he failed to hit another shot in the game, including a pair of shots at the line in the fourth quarter.
"Joe is going to compete, no matter what the score is," Dettmering said. "He battles, no matter if we're up or down. That's one thing that I know I'm always going to get out of Joe."
Junior forward Andrew Overton finally broke the barrier for the Cobras in the second half, cutting the deficit to 16 with 1:14 remaining as the Bearcats continued to have their way on the court. Johnson hit his first bucket of the game with 54 seconds left in the third, but Booneville managed to take a 32-15 lead into the final eight minutes.
The Bearcats went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead to a 38-16 lead before junior guard Rodrigo Vasquez found junior guard Marcus Needles in the corner for a 3-pointer to cut the deficit down to 19 with 2:07 remaining as Dettmering began substituting his younger players into the game.
Cobb hit a 3-pointer with 1:47 remaining to push the Bearcats out to a 41-19 lead, but sophomore guard Will Drakes found his way under the basket just 11 seconds into the game for the final shot of the night.
Murphy pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds with two steals and an assist. Needles, Johnson and Mungle all added three points each with Johnson grabbing six rebounds, a steal and a block and Mungle with a steal, assist and rebound.
Goers and Cobb led the Bearcats with 10 points each with Goers pulling down five rebounds with four assists and two steals and Cobb getting three takeaways, two rebounds and an assist. Riley added nine points with five boards.
Both teams, along with Jessieville (20-8, 10-4) and Perryville (16-10, 9-5), will continue their season next week in the 3A-2 regional tournament at Perryville against the top four teams from the 3A-5 conference. Fountain Lake will face the No. 3 seed Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
"We've got to get this one out of our memory and get ready for next week," Dettmering said. "That's what these guys will do."
Sports on 02/16/2019