ALTAMONT — Putting an eightgame losing streak that dated back to Dec. 20 to bed, the Labette County Grizzlies boys bested the Fort Scott Tigers, 47-44, on Friday night.
Despite never leading by more than six points, the Grizzlies never trailed in the second half.
“We finished pretty OK tonight,” Labette County head coach Bradley Argabright said. “It was a tight game. But we never let them get a lead and that was big for us. We’d been playing from behind too much. We got stops on the defensive end. Fort Scott is a good team and tonight, we finished a good game.”
With Nolan Nash out sick, Labette County point guard Kegan Bates poured in 21 points to pace the Grizzlies.
“He made big shots,” Argabright said. “He made tough shots in the lane. He was doing the things a point guard needs to do. I’m proud of his competitiveness and toughness. He has to go 32 minutes every night. I can’t say enough about all the little things he’s doing for our team.”
Barrett Hestand added 16 points, including what ended up being the game-winning 3-pointer in the game’s final moments with the score tied at 4444.“ They hit a big three to tie it up and we wanted to find a good shot,” Argabright said. “We got a big offensive rebound and then we hit a big, open shot.”
Labette County had lost eight straight games before Thursday’s win — half the losses were by six points or less.
“We just wanted to get a win,” Argabright said. “We needed to see one. Hopefully that propels us. We’ve been close in a lot of games. It was nice to get up tonight. We’ve been playing the comeback game. For us to get the lead and finish was huge for us.”
Momentum for Labette County 24 hours later as the Grizzlies fell to Independence on the road, 67-54. The pair of contests moved Labette County’s record to 4-11 overall.
Up next
Labette County faces rival Parsons on the road on Tuesday.
