Heading into Friday night's home contest against first place Hardin County, the Trojans needed a win to grab a share of the league championship.

Behind 22-points from junior forward Caleb Vaughn and a defensive effort that kept the Cougars in check for most of the first three quarters, head coach Jon Brown's Trojans accomplished the mission with a 54-43 win on Senior Night.

Although they had a lot of errors themselves on the evening, the celebration happened because they built a 20-point lead through three quarters, and they withstood a 12-0 Hardin County run at the beginning of the fourth quarter, to improve to 22-7 overall.

This win forged a four-way tie at the top of the conference standings with Crab Orchard, Hardin County, Gallatin County and Norris City-Omaha-Enfield all finishing at 5-2.

“I thought we made them work tonight. We made them earn their points for the most part,” added Coach Brown. “We did a good job in the passing lanes and forced them to work the ball for shots.”

For coach Rodney Lane's Cougars, the regular season ends on a sour note.

Hardin County battled injuries and issue for most of the season as they saw their conference and regular season close at 15-11.

One of the bright spots for the Cougars on this night, and all season, has been the play of Tyler Winters.

The 5-foot-10 junior guard netted 16-points on the night including six-points in the fourth quarter as the Cougars made a run to make things a bit more interesting.

Winters went over the 1,000-point mark for his career in the first half.

But the main issue that the guests couldn't overcome was their failure to capitalize on Crab Orchard's problem at the foul line.

The Cougars paraded the hosts to the stripe and the Trojans laid a lot of bricks (21-of-40).

However Hardin County never got closer than eight points in the second half in the loss.

Besides Vaughn, the lone senior on Coach Brown's club also came up with a good showing.

Lane Hutson scored 10-points for the Trojans and his 4-of-4 effort from the foul line in the fourth quarter helped get Crab Orchard back on track which turned into a win for his team.

“He (Hutson) has been huge for us all year. He's the only senior on the roster and he is tough. He has been there all year for us and he is a gutsy competitor,” said Coach Brown. “Vaughn had a big night for us. Made some nice moves.”

Sophomore guard Cameron Stephens chipped in eight-points for Crab Orchard while up front Amos Beasley and McKager Ferrell, both junior forwards, added seven and six points respectively.

But this duo were part of the masonry from the charity stripe as the two combined for just 5-of-17 from the line.

As it turned out, the Trojans used its guard play to slow the tempo in the second half and made enough free throws to finish off the win.

Coach Lane got eight-points each from Cameron Shaw and Jamison Hicks.

Shaw, a 5-foot-8 junior, hit a pair of 3-pointers, including one in the fourth quarter as the Cougars made things interesting.

Hicks, a 6-foot-4 sophomore added four field goals, with two coming in the final minutes.

Austin Seavers and Hunter Cullum each added three-points.

Seavers, who has missed part of the season due to a knee injury, was cleared to play wearing a brace.

“We have struggled with our halfcourt offense this season (with Seaver out) and this was his first night back. He just got released today with that brace. He's not near 100 percent as you could tell,” said Coach Lane. “When you lose a guy who is 18-points and 10.5 rebounds a game it hurts. We have struggled since we lost him.”

Crab Orchard jumped out to an early advantage, only to see the Cougars rally to take the lead at the end of the first quarter.

Vaughn scored seven of his points in the first frame, hitting a 3-pointer and also scoring on a drive in the lane.

Stephens also added five-points the same way as Vaughn, netting a long range shot and also scoring on a fast break lay in.

Winters added six of his points in the first quarter, which ended with the Cougars on top 17-16.

Hardin County can point to its scoring problems in the second and third quarters that got them behind too far for a comeback.

The Cougars managed just 1-of-8 field goals in the second quarter, scoring just four-points on a drive to the bucket by and two free throws from junior Chad Hutson.

In the same quarter, Crab Orchard made a run to take a ten-point cushion into the half.

Beasley netted a pair of baskets in the paint to open the quarter and Vaughn added eight markers.

He grabbed a rebound of his own missed shot, as part of a 6-0 burst to begin the quarter to give Crab Orchard a 22-17 lead.

The Hardin County points came on back-to-back trips, with two free throws by junior Craig Hudson and the score by Winters putting the junior over the 1,000-point plateau.

Vaughn added three-consecutive free throws while being fouled by Winters with 4:22 left.

On then next trip down the floor, Vaughn nailed down his second 3-pointer, this time from the left corner.

When Hutson found himself wide-open at the top of the circle, he closed the first half scoring with a 3-pointer to make it 31-21 at intermission.

The hosts appeared to have put this outcome to rest in the third quarter, outscoring the Cougars 14-4 with six-different players scoring.

This spread could have been significantly higher had the Trojans hit more than 5-of-14 from the foul line in that stanza.

However baskets by Vaughn and Beasley early in the quarter, and 3-point bomb by Stephens off of a drive and dish by Hutson, put Crab Orchard up 45-25 heading to the fourth quarter.

Hardin County then opened up the fourth quarter with its big move that produced some apprehension among the home crowd.

Winters scored six of the points, opening the burst with a driving reverse lay in and closing it with two-consecutive scores on drives in the lane.

Hicks added two scores in the middle, one on a rebound and the other on a pass from teammate senior John Rose.

When Winters scored with 3:29 remaining, the Cougars were down just 45-37.

That was the end of the run and the drama for the rest of the contest as the Trojans finally got some free throws to fall.

Vaughn and Hutson combined for 9-of-12 to close out the matchup.

The Trojans were very patient on offense and it showed in the amount of shots taken.

Coach Brown saw his club hit 14-of-34 attempts (41.1 percent), including 5-of-17 from the arc.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they weren't very good from the field (17-of-47 overall) at 29.7 percent.

Hardin County won the rebounding battle 26-23, grabbing 10-offensive rebounds.

Each team committed 13-turnovers.

“We missed a lot of easy bunnies (shots) tonight. If we make a few more of them tonight then we would have been right there. We have played better on the road this year than I expected and tonight we have been better than we have been playing. For the last seven or eight games we have had a lot of freshman and sophomores out there. The are getting better. But we just didn't get much done on offense tonight,” said Coach Lane.

Both of the clubs can now gear up for the state tournament that begins next week.

Crab Orchard will host the regional, which features state-ranked Woodlawn, while the Cougars will travel to Goreville, where the hosts are the top-seed.

The Trojans are the number six-seed in the sub-sectional and will face GEC rival Galatia in the first round on Monday night at 7:30 pm.

The Bearcats topped the Trojans 90-78 back on December 11.

For the Cougars, they were also warranted the six-seed in their sub-sectional and will face GEC brethren Carrier Mills for the fourth time this season, also on Monday night (6 pm).

The two teams split regular season games with the Cougars winning the conference game on December 11, 63-54, while the Wildcats won the non-conference tilt on February 13, 62-48.

Hardin County topped CM in the consolation championship game of the GEC Tournament.

“There was a lot of parity this year in the conference. A lot of the teams were young, but talented. But it is a pride thing for us (winning the conference),” said Coach Brown, whose team's have won 5-of-the-last-6 conference championships, either shared or outright. “Four of those we didn't lose a game in the league. At one time we had won 31-straight conference games.”