Southwest Guilford Cowboys go forth to (20-0) but it wasn’t easy as ‘The Boys’ prevail in OT over HPC

Courtesy of Greg Vlazny Southwest Guilford Basketball….

SWG over HP Central, 67-60 in Overtime……

The Bison of High Point Central came over to ranch to face the Cowboys of Southwest in a Piedmont Triad Conference battle. The first time these teams faced eachother it was in the second round of the Sheetz Holiday Classic. That game was eeked out by the Cowboys in the final seconds, so the Bison came into tonight seeking some vengance.

The Cowboys were looking to keep the perfect season moving along. Well, the sequel turned out to be almost a carbon copy.

The Bison who play their home games here at SW, are very familar and took charge of the game early as SW struggled from the field. Central took a 9-2 lead at the 2:15mark, and held it to 14-7 after the first 8 minutes.

The Bison extended the lead to 18-10 a minute and a half into the second quarter. The Cowboys switched gears and went on a 14-0 run to take the game at 24-18 before the Bison scored again at the 2:06mark to make it 24-20. The Bison used that basket to get momentum and got a quick spurt including a bucket in the closing seconds of the half to take it into the break ahead 27-26.

The second half was some more ugly basketball. The Cowboys once again took the lead at 33-31 at the 5:30 mark, and got it out to 37-31 90 seconds later. The lead expanded to 9, but a deep three pointer at the buzzer cut the deficit to 46-40 headed into the fourth frame.

Southwest scored the first basket of the quarter, but that was about all the momentum they could muster. Bit by bit the Bison charged back into it. But even when the Cowboys stretched the lead to 55-50 with 4:02 left, the Bison ultimately scored the final 5 points of the quarter to tie it up at 55 with 45.6 left on the clock on an offensive put back. On the ensuing Cowboys posession, they attempted to wind the clock down for the final shot, but a careless turnover lead to a long outlet pass for the Bison who had a wide open layup attempt, until Terrell Leach chased him down and slammed his shot against the backboard and off of the Bison’s player’s head with 2.1 seconds remaining.

After a timeout to draw something up, the Cowboys got a good look at halfcourt for Leach, but the shot was too strong. So This game was headed to overtime.

The extra period was all Cowboys, as they scored the first 6 points to take a 61-55 lead with 1:55 to play. 2 free throws, and a basket by the Cowboys made the tally 65-57. Yet another sloppy turnover by SW gave the Bison another chance to cut into the lead, but was unable to hit a perimeter shot until the it was already too late. The Cowboys prevailed and hung on to remain perfect on the year overall and in the PTC with an ugly 67-60 victory in OT.

The Bison were paced by Germaine Pratt with 19, with 3 other players in double figures.

The Cowboys were lead by Terrell Leach on an off night with 25, 8 Reb, 3 Stl, and KJ Langley with 11, 3 Stl, and a great overall effort by Michael Bryant with 4, 6 Reb, 2 Stl, 1 Blk.

The Cowboys are 20-0, 9-0 and play again Friday night on senior night against East Forsyth.

               1st  2nd 3rd 4th   OT    Final
HPC            14   13   13  15   05    60
Southwest      07   19   20  09   12    67

HPC (10-11) (4-5)
Jamal Thompson 6
Ahmad Langham 10
Jafari Quick 13
Rahmon Barnes 2
Germaine Pratt 19
Juwan Foggie 10

Southwest (20-0) (9-0)
Terrell Leach 25
KJ Langley 11
Ben Ferguson 3, 2 Reb
DJ Chamblee 9, 5 Reb, 3 Ast, 3 Stl
Tyliek Brister 3, 2 Reb
Michael Bryant 4
Dequan Bethea 6, 2 Reb
Antonio Banks 6

Vlaz