By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — After battling back to tie or go ahead of Alexander Central’s men’s basketball team on Jan. 31, at the end there was nothing more Watauga could do.
With time ticking away in regulation and the score tied 37-37, the Cougars’ Chad Lasher took pass from the perimeter and laid the ball up and in, beating the buzzer by 0.1 seconds to secure Alexander Central’s win over the Pioneers, 39-37, in front of a packed crowd filling Lentz Eggers Gym.
The drama was setup just moments before when Watauga’s Maddox Greene tied the game at 37 with a 3-pointer on the other end of the floor, with roughly 40 seconds remaining. The Cougars calmly brought the ball up court, the clock tick-tick-ticking away and the game seemingly headed to overtime before Lasher found the ball in his hands and he instinctively went to the rim with hit as time was expiring.
Each team had only one player in double figures scoring, offensively. Cougars guard Avery Cook had a team-high 13 points while Greene recorded a game-high 14 points for Pioneers.
“Coming in we knew we would be facing a good team and that it would be a battle,” said Watauga head coach Bryson Payne afterwards. “They like to keep it low scoring and they kept it low scoring. It just came down to the last possession. We told our guys that we are proud of the way they played tonight and I am proud of the way they played. We played hard and lost on one shot. We lost just one shot away from the game going into overtime, where anything can happen. It is never fun to lose on a buzzer beater, but (Alexander Central) ran a good set, got a good look and they hit it. That is basketball.”
As the Pioneers head to a Feb. 3 rematch at Hibriten, Payne noted, “We have a lot of work left to do. Every conference game is extremely important. We have to not dwell on this one and get to work for the next one.”
- WAT Maddox Greene: 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals
- WAT Grant Morrison: 9 points, 1 steal
- WAT Wyatt Kohout: 6 rebounds, 3 assists
- WAT Jackson Pryor: 6 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 1 steal
- WAT Wyatt Keller: 6 points, 1 steal, 2 rebounds
- ALX Avery Cook: 13 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds
- ALX Chad Lasher: 12 rebounds, 4 points, 4 assists
- ALX Carter Fortner: 8 points, 5 rebounds
- ALX Luke Hammer: 2 steals, 3 points, 3 rebounds
- ALX Grayson Presnell: 6 assists, 5 points
