By DAVID GARY
GLASGOW — Cumberland County roared out to an early lead and didn’t look back as Barren County dropped a tough-fought senior night contest, 52-41, on Friday.
Barren kept pace with the Panthers until both teams had eight points on the scoreboard. Cumberland’s Tyler Riley closed out the opening period with five quick points and Barren trailed 13-8.
Cumberland extended the run to eight points and doubled up the Trojans (4-21) before Micheal Toms’ jumper extinguished some of the fire behind the Panther machine for the time being.
“Micheal is just a great leader and he is one of the four guys out there that I really want to personally thank for sticking with us all season long, and night after night giving everything he has until the final horn,” Barren coach Warren Cunningham said.
On paper the Trojans matched up in virtually every statistic on the sheet against Cumberland (11-8).
All of them, except one.
Barren shot just less than 21 percent from the floor in the first half and fell to a 13 point hole that they had a difficult time climbing out of.
Cunningham was quick to point out this was the only discernable difference in the teams tonight.
“The bottom line is you have to make shots,” Cunningham said. “We didn’t do that tonight and when you find yourself shooting in the 30 percent range for the game, usually you find yourself on the losing end of the scoreboard.”
Cumberland ripped out to an 11-2 run to take their lead just out of the reach of the scrappy Trojans, who chased the Panthers to a pair of eight point margins, but ultimately never found their shooting touch.
“We had the opportunities, but we just did not shoot well and we did not take advantage of a couple times I thought we could make a run and make something happen,” Cunningham said.
Micheal Toms and Zach Gibson led the Trojans in scoring with 11 points each.
Barren concludes the regular season with a pair of road games. The Trojans travel to Metcalfe County on Tuesday and make a trip to Clinton County on Thursday.
Score by quarter
CC 13 14 13 12 - 52
Barren 8 6 15 12 - 41
Barren scoring
Micheal Toms 11, Zach Gibson 11, Josh Crews 4, Aaron Shives 3, Colton Phelps 2, Tyler Bailey 2, Tyler Hughes 2, Austin Birge 2, Chase Nunn 2.
