Published: January 27, 2010 11:23 pm      

Southwestern falls to West Jessamine 81-55

Somerset — utside on Tuesday night, but inside the Wigwam, things were hot; well, for West Jessamine anyway.

The visiting Colts came to the Wigwam and shot an astounding 60 percent from the field in their 81-55 disposing of Southwestern.

The Warriors couldn’t match the Colts’ hot hand, going 18-for-51 for 35 percent from the field.

In the opening minute of the contest, West Jessamine’s David Elliott drove the lane and took advantage of an old-school three-point play. That gave the Colts a 3-0 lead, and jumpstarted a 7-0 spurt by the Colts. That would be the beginning of a long night for Dave Schulz’s club. In fact, the Warriors would not lead the entire contest.

Gus Sherrow and Elliott each netted a basket to cap off the 7-0 start. Both Sherrow and Elliott finished the contest with a game-high 18 points.

But here came the Warriors. Warrior point guard Tyler Mayer found Daulton Marlow in the corner, nailing a three-pointer to put Southwestern on the board at 7-3.

Minutes later, Marlow hit another trey cutting the West Jessamine lead to 9-6. Two three-pointers from Elliott and Gus Sherrow gave the Colts a 15-6 advantage.

Brannon Bellar came off the bench, giving the Warriors a much-needed presence down-low. Bellar’s basket lessened the Colts lead to four.

However, West Jessamine tallied four more points in the final minute to take a 23-14 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Elliott and Sherrow teamed up for 18 of the Colts’ 23 first quarter points.

The Colts opened up the second quarter with two trifectas coming from Dylan Pohl and Keston Bartholomew, widening the gap to 29-18.

A drive by Mayer and a three by Cody Epperson cut the West Jessamine lead to 29-21.

The Colts then went on another run, this time a 9-0 sort. Jarrod Polson, Sherrow, and Bartholomew each contributed to the Colts run, bringing the score to 38-23.

Two free-throws from Cody Epperson canceled the Colts streak.

A Cody Epperson layup and a Robby Lewis basket reduced the Colt lead to 42-27.

Then Cody Epperson netted a three-pointer at the buzzer to shrink the lead to 44-30 at the intermission. He tallied 12 of his 15 points in the quarter.

“They shot well, especially in the first half,” stated Schulz. “Is it because of unchallenged three’s? Sure. We went out there and didn’t even foul one time to let them know that we were challenging them.”

The third quarter proved to be where the Warriors stalled, being outscored 17-5 in the eight minute quarter. Marlow tallied four of the five points off of two baskets while Mayer contributed with a free-throw.

The Warriors shot 18 percent in the third quarter, going two for 11 from the field.

After three quarters of play, West Jessamine had stretched their lead out to 61-35 over the Warriors.

West Jessamine cruised to victory for the rest of the contest, making substitutions throughout the final quarter.

Marlow hit two three’s in the final quarter while Aaron Brown chipped in with a trifecta.

Both teams matched each other’s point total, with each tallying 20 points in the fourth.

After the smoke had finally cleared from the Colts’ hot shooting, West Jessamine defeated Southwestern 81-55.

“Our performance was very lackluster, very content, and very complacent, for whatever reason,” said Schulz. “West Jessamine doesn’t make it much better because they’re an excellent basketball team. There was not much fight in this dog tonight.”

The Colts had three players reach double figures: David Elliott, Gus Sherrow, and Dylan Pohl. Elliott and Sherrow each registered 18 points while Pohl chipped in with 11.

West Jessamine had ten players get in the scoring column and had 26 points off of the bench in the win.

Sophomore Daulton Marlow led the Warriors with 16 points, nailing four three-pointers. Cody Epperson, another sophomore, finished with 15 points.

Tyler Mayer had four assists while Justin Epperson and Robby Lewis each pulled down five rebounds.

With the 26-point loss, the Warriors have now lost four straight games. At this point, Southwestern’s record currently stands at 10-9.

“Until we learn to be more accountable for what we are doing out on the floor, this skid will continue on,” stated the Warrior head coach. “We’ve got to play more aggressive and with a more sense of urgency.”

Schulz believes that his team has picked a bad time of the season to fall apart with the recent games against McCreary Central, Russell County, and West Jessamine. That’s some top-notch teams in the area.

“We’ve been going against some good competition in our Region, so for us to be complacent at this time; we picked a bad time to do it,” explained Schulz.

The Warriors will attempt to end their four-game skid tomorrow night against Casey County.

“Anybody in this (12th) Region could beat us at anytime,” said Schulz of tomorrow night’s match-up with Casey County. “We think that everything is going to come easy I guess, and I don’t know how we can think that.”

Tip-off is set for 7:30 PM tomorrow night at the Wigwam.



WJ 23 21 17 20 — 81

SW 14 16 05 20 — 55

WJ — Elliott 18, Sherrow 18, Pohl 11, Donaldson 8, Polson 8, Bartholomew 6, Moberly 4, Straight 4, Dunn 2, Watts 2

SW — Marlow 16, C. Epperson 15, Lewis 7, Mayer 7, J. Epperson 5, Brown 3, Bellar 2