By JON WEBB
HORSE CAVE — Caverna’s homecoming celebration was crashed on Friday.
The Scotties outscored the Colonels 48-21 in the second half to seal an 88-49 victory. Cameron Hall compiled 23 points and Kerrington Bradley added 15 in a game that saw the starters for both teams sitting on the bench for the majority of the fourth quarter.
The game was far from decided at the end of the first half, though. The Colonels rattled off an 8-2 run at the tail end of the second to pull within 12 at the half. The Scotties soon distanced themselves with a 22-10 third quarter that essentially wrapped up the matchup.
“I thought the third quarter was as well as we’ve played all year,” Glasgow head coach Jeff Hall said. “Then we had the opportunity to play the second and third string team late.”
Caverna’s Jordan Rice struck first with a jump shot at the 7:14 mark to give the Colonels an initial 2-0 advantage. Field goals from Kerrington Bradley and Parker Cash erased the advantage and a subsequent Dean Glass three-pointer handed the Scotties a 7-2 lead with just more than six minutes to play in the first. The Colonels’ Fred Reed ended the run with a field goal 12 seconds later, but a Glasgow 9-0 run pushed the lead to 16-4.
And then Jarrod Harper stepped up.
The senior accounted for eight of Caverna’s next 10 points to corral the lead back into single digits. A Hall field goal, Michael Bradley free throw and Andrew Wade three-pointer undid that work, however, giving Glasgow a 27-15 lead heading into the second stanza.
Despite seven additional points from Harper and six from Dearrick Lindsey, that lead shot up to as many as 18 in the second before a Colonels offensive spurt sliced the advantage to 12 going into the half.
Harper led all scorers with 16 after the first two quarters, with Hall and Kerrington Bradley shepherding the Scotties with 12 apiece.
“It kind of seemed like we were rusty (at the beginning of the half),” coach Hall said, referring to the Scotties’ six-day layoff between games. “Once we shook the rust off we got at it, except for that two minute stretch at the end of the half.”
The stretch was a distant memory by the end of the third, as Glasgow kicked off the second half with a 9-0 run in less than a minute that stretched the lead to 21. A Hall three-pointer at the 3:15 mark inflated the Glasgow advantage to 27 before free throws from Harper and Lindsey and a field goal by Brett Davidson shrunk it back to 22. Davidson added another score before the end of the period, but despite his efforts the Scotties grabbed a 28-point cushion heading into the last eight minutes.
Glasgow bench player Steely Harris set the tone in the fourth, adding seven points in cleanup duty to help the Scotties coast to the victory.
“Steely did a real nice job for us,” coach Hall said. “Actually, I thought all the kids did well. If you look at the scoring sheet, we had players with 23, 15, 12 ... it doesn’t take long for that to add up to 88 points.”
Cash was responsible for the aforementioned 12. Glass (9), Harris (7), Michael Bradley (6), Hunter Bowles (4), Sammy Bradley (4), Lajuan Smith (3), Andrew Wade (3) and Price Bell (2) rounded out the scorers for Glasgow.
Harper finished with 20 and Lindsey 11 for Caverna. Cole Hay and Davidson each tossed in four. The Colonels will attempt to move on from the loss when they face Washington County tomorrow. Glasgow will celebrate its senior night the following evening when it welcomes Cumberland County.
