Showtime Showdown tonight at Southwest Guilford and the Cowboys and Ragdale Tigers end up in OT:Leach fouls out with 4:37 left regulation and Cowboys still find a way to win

Courtesy of Greg Vlazny Southwest Guilford Boys Bsketball….

It was round 1 of High Point’s most heated rivalry between the Cowboys of Southwest and the Tigers of Ragsdale. The city’s prep version of the tobacco road rivalry is always just as intense and volatile as Carolina and Duke. Tonight’s Piedmont Triad Conference matchup was no different, as the Tigers traveled over to Southwest to try and give the Cowboys their first loss on the year, while the hosts were trying to keep things rolling and remain perfect.

Boy did this rivalry not disappoint.

The Tigers came out red hot from the field and jumped all over the Cowboys 9-5. But the Tigers weren’t done, and continued to push the lead all th way out to 18-5 at the 3:42 mark. The Cowboys finally decided to wake up and play some basketball and 90 seconds later the Cowboys cut it to 20-18 with 1:10 to play in the first. A Cowboy 3 pointer gave the host’s their first lead of the night at 21-20. The final period ended with the Cowboys holding a slim 23-22 lead.

The second quarter had the hosts using that momentum to build a lead but the cushion never got more than 8, and going into the break it was 44-38.

The third quarter was a complete shift in momentum as the Tigers fought back to tie the ball game up at 51 at the 4:10 mark. After trading baskets, SW’s Terrell Leach had yet another monstrous dunk that shook the gym. But, rivals never go away easy as a lat 3 pointer gave the Tigers the lead back headed into the fourth quarter 62-59.

Once again, the fourth quarter was filled with drama. Using the energy from the late bucket, Ragsdale scored the first 6 points of the frame to push the lead to 68-59. Finally a Cowboy basket stopped the bleeding, but ended up only trading baskets with the Tigers. A corner 3 pointer by Terrell Leach cut the lead 70-66 at the 5:10 mark, but unfortunately it was to be his last points on the evening. Driving the lane, Leach was called for a charge. On the ensuing Tiger possession, they drove the lane and scored a basket and drew the foul. After missing the free-throw, the Cowboys proceeded to bring the ball up court only to have the table call the ref’s over.

Due to some confusion from the first half where 4 Cowboy players had to mix and match Jerseys due to blood being on them, including Leach who had to change Jerseys all together, the table concluded that the previous charge was his 5th and final foul, fouling out at he 4:37 mark.

Mysteriously, the referees gave the Tigers an extra free-throw following the brief delay, which they made making the mark 73-66. So, are the people right? Is Leach the only thing SW has?

After a miss, and a pair of Tiger free-thows, the visitors held a 75-66 lead with only 3:48 remaining. A timeout by Southwest was used to bring regroup the Cowboys. Using their pressure defense, the Cowboys forced turnovers, bad shots, and with the help of bad free-throw shooting, the Cowboys fought back and tied the game up on a pair of Ben Ferguson FT’s at the 1:08 mark.

After a defensive stop, the Cowboys were unable to get the basket at the buzzer, and for the second straight game headed into overtime with the game still at 75-75. With an energetic and raucous student section behind them, the Cowboys refused to let their senior leader down.

A Ben Ferguson 3 pointer gave the Cowboys the lead 78-75 with 2:03 to play. Ragsdale responded with their only basket in the extra session. The Cowboys were fouled, missed the front end of the 1 and 1, but an offensive rebound by Ferguson kept it alive and was fouled. He calmly hit both freebies to make the tally 82-77 with only 1:10 to play. A made free-throw, an offensive put back, made it 82-80 with only 23.8 seconds left.

In the end, Ferguson was 5-6 from the charity stripe in the extra period as the Cowboys held on in dramatic fashion once again to win 86-81 as they remain perfect on the year.

The Tigers were lead by Joseph Bryant with 27 points. Southwest was lead by Terrell Leach with 24, 5 Reb, 2 Asts, 2 Stls, Ben Ferguson 23, 6 Reb, 2 Stls, and KJ Langley with 17 points 2 Asts, and 1 Stl.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT Final
Ragsdale   22  16  24  13  06   81
Southwest  23  19  15  16  11   86

Ragsdale (7-8), (1-2)
James Stepp 6
Kenyon Mack 5
T.J. Parker 2
Khalil Whitaker 3
Joseph Bryant 27
Daniel Kanakanui 13
Dylan Willis 4
Jarratt Holland 16

Southwest (12-0) (2-0)
Terrell Leach 24
KJ Langley 17
Ben Ferguson 23
DJ Chamblee 7
Antonio Banks 6
Tyliek Brister 2
Michael Bryant 2
Dequan Bethea 1
Austen Zente 3
Andrew Bullock 2