Melodie Phelps, News Editor
Monticello — The Wayne County Cardinals hosted Southwestern on Friday, February 5.
The game marked the 26th meeting between the two schools with Wayne County leading the series 15-11.
Southwestern had won the earlier meeting this season between the two schools, 63-44. The Cards plan to even out the series fell short as they dropped a 60-52 loss to the Warriors last week.
"We have to defend better and take care of the ball and shoot the ball better, " said Wayne County coach Rodney Woods. "We need to improve in every phase of the game. "
Wayne County trailed 15-9 at the end of the first quarter. Southwestern outscored the Cards 18-10 in the second quarter to take a 33-19 advantage.
The Cards regained some ground in the third quarter, as they outscored Southwestern 16-7. Wayne County had pulled within 5, 40-35, going into the final eight minutes.
But the Warriors scored 20 points in the final stanza and held on for the win.
Wayne County was led by the junior tandem of Austin Shearer with 16 points and Gavin Dunagan with 14 points. With this performance, Shearer surpassed the 1,100th career point mark. Dunagan surpassed the 2,000th career point mark and his 11 rebound effort pushed him past 1,100 career rebounds.
Ryan Hopper finished with 7 points. He led Wayne County in steals with 4 and in assists with 4.
The Cards hit 34 percent from the field, connecting on 15 of 43. They were 4 of 16 from beyond the arc for 25 percent and 18 of 21 from the free throw line for 85 percent.
Tyler Mayer led Southwestern with 19 points. Cody Epperson added 15 in the win.
The Warriors were 25 of 43 from the field for 58 percent. They hit 5 of
8 from beyond the arc for 62 percent and 5 of 11 from the charity stripe for
45 percent.
Wayne County won the battle on the boards 28-22. the Cards had 20 turnovers compared to 19 for Southwestern.
Next up for Wayne County was a Monday night contest against Knox Central. See next week's edition for details.