02/18/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
CRAB ORCHARD - Friday night's game for Hardin County didn't start out well for Coach Rodney Lane and his Cougars.

Facing Crab Orchard on the road in a game that would decide the outright regular season championship of the Greater Egyptian Conference, his team struggled offensively.

With the Trojans employing a “triangle-and-two” defense Hardin County made just 8-of-27 shot attempts in the first two quarters, including 0-of-11 from the 3-point line.

Coach Jon Brown's strategy was to let the Cougars shoot from long range and it worked for the first 16-minutes.

Unfortunately for the hosts, Hardin County got hot at the right time to open up the second half.

Connecting on 6-of-11 shots in the third quarter, including 4-of-6 from the 3-point line, the Cougars erased a 27-19 halftime deficit with a 22-8 third quarter.

This proved to be enough as the Cougars knocked down 6-of-9 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold off a Crab Orchard comeback in a 60-54 triumph to secure the GEC championship.

This marks the first outright league championship for the program since 1992-93.

Coach Lane's crew also won the GEC tournament title back in January.

Five-eleven sophomore guard Ben Vaughn led the Cougars with 17-points while senior forward Jake Vaughn tossed in 14.

Six-five senior Bryce Cullum and 5-11 sophomore Nick Austin added 12 and eight-points for Hardin County.

Both Cullum and Austin each knocked down two 3-pointers in the third quarter to help 'flip the script' as the Cougars took home the league title.

Senior guard Gavin Smith also came up big, hitting a pair of big shots in the fourth quarter and finished with five-points.

Senior Kevin Gerdes and sophomore Walker Bebout added a bucket for two-points each as all of the points turned out to be needed in the win.

“They're tough. Jon Brown's teams are tough. They play as hard as anybody plays. They're fearless shooting the basketball,” said Coach Lane. “I thought we did a good job defending them late in the game. I'm pretty proud of the effort. We got behind but we fought back. We have some guys that have been sick but we battled back.”

Crab Orchard, after a big win over Cobden on Tuesday night, fell to 20-6 on the season.

Coach Brown and his Trojans were looking for their first outright championship since 2015 but after a good start the club fell behind and never got the lead back as they ended up 6-1 on the season in the GEC.

A pair of 5-10 juniors led the Trojans' scoring on Friday night.

Robbie Rooker and Brinnen Norris each scored 15-points in the contest while 5-10 senior Ian Dawes added 13.

Junior Conner Richardson netted five-points on 5-of-6 from the foul line while Coach Brown got four-points from senior Hayden Ray and a first quarter basket by junior Colton Throgmorton to complete the Crab Orchard scoring.

“We have had to try and overcome that all year (size) and in that defense we had a hard time rebounding. I'm proud of our effort,” said Coach Brown. “We struggle to score inside. We don't have a post-up guy. We have role players who play extremely hard and fight for rebounds. Our inside game becomes just us driving in to get to the rim and then kicking it out.”

The 'gimmick' defense used by the Trojans allowed the hosts to take an early lead while frustrating Hardin County.

As per usual for Crab Orchard, they were going to shoot a lot of 3-point shots and four of them found the mark in the opening frame.

Trailing 6-5 after a pair of baskets by Ben Vaughn and a rebound score from Austin, Ray hit his only field goal of the game – a 3-pointer from the right corner to give the Trojans a spark.

Norris canned a pair of 3-point shots in the quarter and Rooker connected on his first long range shot of the night as Crab Orchard led 16-9 at the end of one.

Back-to-back scores by Rooker, including his second long range bomb, kept the pressure on the Cougars.

When Richardson hit his first two free throws of the game, Crab Orchard had its biggest lead at 23-12 with 4:47 left in the half.

Hardin County got a three-point play from Ben Vaughn and a rebound bucket from Cullum to cut into the deficit.

Gerdes closed out the half with his only basket on a rebound but Hardin County still trailed by eight at the break.

“That was the speech at halftime. I told the kids at halftime we have to start making some shots,” said Coach Lane. “Those two guys (Cullum, Austin) stepped up and made some shots. It was a turning point in the game because now they (Crab Orchard) have to guard everybody so we could get into an offense.”

The Cougars must have gotten the message as the third quarter offensive changed the complexion of the game.

Ben Vaughn added six more points with a couple of inside scores and a pair of free throws.

Cullum, who missed all of his 3-point attempts in the first half connected on two-consecutive shots from the right wing.

Jake Vaughn added two free throws and another inside bucket by Ben Vaughn closed a 12-2 run as the Cougars had their first advantage since the first quarter at 31-29.

Following a pair of made free throws by Rooker, Hardin County started another offensive run.

Consecutive 3-point bombs by Austin, both from the top of the circle, were the telling blows.

Then the Vaughn's converted four-consecutive free throws (two each) for a 41-31 lead with 1:39 left.

Rooker added a driving score to stop the HC run and two more free throws by Richardson closed the quarter at 41-35 Cougars heading to the fourth quarter.

“You have to know that a gimmick (defense) isn't going to work forever. Their kids started knocking shots down and when we got down a little bit we had to come out of it and press,” said Coach Brown. “I thought we put up a good fight and I'm proud of the kids.”

The hosts made runs at Hardin County in the fourth quarter.

The first one opened the stanza with Dawes and Norris providing points on a two free throws and a steal and fast break score respectively.

But Hardin County responded with some big plays by a couple of unsung heroes.

One came while breaking the press where Jake Vaughn found Bebout open on a back door cut for a score and a 45-41 lead.

Then Smith came up with a couple of big scores for Hardin County.

Smith nailed down a 3-point bomb from the left wing and, after another Jake Vaughn score, Smith then took a nice assist from Cullum for a lay in and a 54-47 lead.

The Trojans final scoring move in the final 3:18 was a 3-pointer from Rooker and two baskets by Dawes on a rebound stick back and a drive in the lane.

When Dawes scored his second bucket in the sequence the Trojans still had hope at 56-54 with :34 left.

However Jake Vaughn (2-of-2) and Ben Vaughn (2-of-4) closed out the scoring from the foul line while the Trojans missed their final three 3-point attempts, all of which were rebounded by Hardin County.

The Cougars survived 19-turnovers, including six in the fourth quarter, by dominating the glass.

Hardin County out-rebounded the hosts 41-22, including 14 offensive boards.

After a cold beginning, Coach Lane's club finally got some shots to fall in the second half to finish the night at 20-of-48 overall, 5-of-18 from the arc.

Crab Orchard hit just 18-of-60 from the floor, 8-of-34 from the arc.

They managed to take care of the ball (nine-turnovers) but they couldn't overcome the shooting problems and rebounding deficit.

Crab Orchard will open play on Saturday in the Egyptian 1A Regional with a home game against Century.

With the new IHSA format the higher-seeded team will host first round games before the winner's meet at the regional host for semifinals and finals.

If Coach Brown's team wins they would face the winner of the Goreville/Shawnee game that is also being played on Saturday.

That semifinal game will be held at Egyptian on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm.

The Hardin County victory also improved the overall record to 19-9 as the Cougars head into a first round matchup on Saturday against Gallatin County in the Gallatin County 1A Regional.

The first round game will be played at Hardin County, who is the higher-seeded team.

A Cougars' victory would also put them in a Wednesday night semifinal game against the winner of the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield/Galatia Saturday game.

“Lately we have made free throws in the fourth quarter when they really count,” said Coach Lane. “We got the job done tonight but we have to get ready to go tomorrow. We're going to take some pictures, cherish this for about a bus ride home and then we're going to get back to work.”

Hardin County (60) – B. Vaughn 6 0 5-7 17, J. Vaughn 3 0 8-9 14, Smith 1 1 0-0 5, Cullum 2 2 2-3 12, Gerdes 1 0 0-0 2, Austin 1 2 0-0 8, Bebout 1 0 0-0 2.
2FG-15, 3FG-5, FT-15-19, PF-19.
Crab Orchard (54) – Rooker 2 3 2-3 15, I. Dawes 4 1 2-2 13, Ray 0 1 1-2 4, N. Dawes 0 0 0-0 0, Norris 3 3 0-1 15, Throgmorton 1 0 0-0 2, Richardson 0 0 5-6 5.
2FG-10, 3FG-8, FT-10-14, PF-15.
Fouled Out – Throgmorton - Crab Orchard.
Technical Fouls – None.