WEST WILLIAMSON – After picking up two straight losses against two tough opponents in South Charleston and Ashland Paul Blazer, Tug Valley got their fourth win of the season against Williamson Tuesday night, but just barely.

“Williamson outworked us, out-coached us, and outplayed us,” commented Tug Valley Head Coach Garland Thompson. “We didn’t have the same intensity we had in our previous two games.”

“Williamson seemed to feed on our mistakes and our turnovers came at bad times.” continued Thompson. “It was a war out there.”

That war saw the Wolfpack come back from a double digit deficit of 20-9 at the end of the first quarter to a two point gap between the teams at the end of the second, 27-25. The Panthers scored only 4 points to the Wolfpack’s 16 in 2nd quarter, 8 of which coming from Williamson’s Chuckie White.

Williamson continued their upward momentum throughout the 3rd quarter and most of the 4th before Tug Valley broke away in the final minutes of the game on a series of scores by Nathan Brewer and Michael Evans. The fourth quarter also saw the Panthers sink 12 of 13 free throws, 6 of which were made by Cody Varney which helped keep the Wolfpack’s momentum at bay.

Chuckie White sunk a three-pointer at the buzzer increasing Williamson’s score to 56.

Despite the loss, Williamson’s Head Coach Curt Fletcher was pleased with his team’s play.

“We came in with the strategy to try to the slow the game down and rebound the ball and we did what we wanted to do,” said Fletcher.

Tug Valley’s Nathan Brewer scored the game high 22 points and Michael Evans put up 18 point for the Panthers. Cody Varney scored 8 points for Tug Valley, sinking 6 of his 6 foul shots. Other scorers for Tug Valley were Mason Pack with 8 points, Austin Vance with 6, and Austin Brewer with 2.

Williamson’s Chris Hatcher and Chuckie White both put up double digits with 19 points and 18 points respectively. Hatcher pulled down 14 rebounds along with his 19 points and went 5 of 7 from the free throw line. Other scorers for the Wolfpack were Jarrid McCormick with 8 points, Austin Banks with 6, and Nick Lee with 5.

The Wolfpack went 9 for 18 from the free throw line and had 18 turnovers compared to Tug Valley’s 9 turnovers and sinking 16 of 21 of their free throws.

Tug Valley (4-2) will play Johnson Central at home Friday, Jan. 22 and Pikeview in an away game Saturday.

Williamson (3-4) will play Sheldon Clark Thursday in a make-up date from a cancelled December game and Pikeville the following night.  Both games will be played at the Williamson Field House at 7:30 p.m.