SIDNEY – The Covington Buccaneers found themselves in an early hole, but continued to battle hard to give themselves a change to win. Unfortunately, the Buccs came up short against Lehman 40-38.

Earlier in the season Lehman defeated the Buccaneers 53-23 and the Cavaliers entered Friday’s game with a 13-4 record, which made the presumption that Covington was over its head in another TRC contest.

But the Buccaneers never relent regardless of which team they face, and this was evident at Lehman.

Covington jumped out to a 5-3 lead, but Lehman was able to put together a 13-0 run to take a 16-5 lead midway through the second quarter. During the run by Lehman, the Buccaneers executed the offense very well, but unfortunately there were so many open looks that just wouldn’t fall through the net – many of the shots that bounced in and out of the rim.

Even with the great effort at both ends of the floor, Covington trailed 20-9 at the break.

“We dug ourselves another hole and climbed all the way back out of it again.” said Covington coach Logan Carey. “At some point we have to learn how to stop compounding our mistakes.”

It didn’t take long for the Buccaneers to battle their way back as they outscored Lehman 20-9 in the third period to tie the score at 29-29 with one quarter to play.

This put the Buccaneers in position to pull out a win, but things didn’t materialize down the stretch as Lehman was able to escape with a two-point victory.

Still, the way Covington played proved it has the capability to compete any given night.

“I think we can play with absolutely anybody,” Carey said.. “We just have to believe we can.”

Bryson Hite led Covington with a game-high 14 points and Britton Miller scored 10 points.

The loss drops Covington’s record to 7-11 overall and 3-8 in the TRC, but the overall record isn’t a reflection of the type of potential the Buccaneers have moving forward.

Covington looks to build on its improvement tomorrow at Tri-County North in a non-conference game.

SCORE BY QUARTERS:
Covington – 5 – 9 – 29 – 38
Lehman – 11 – 20 – 29 – 40

COVINGTON SCORING:
Bryson Hite – 14
Britton Miller – 10
Brogen Angle – 8
Gunner Kimmel – 6

LEHMAN SCORING:
Donovan O’Leary – 11
Shane Frantz – 11
Daniel Carlisle – 6
Turner Lachy – 5
Da’Ron Pride – 3
CJ Olding – 2
Devin Pride – 2

THREE-POINT SCORING:
Covington – Brogen Angle (2), Bryson Hite (2)
Lehman – Daniel Carlisle (2), Turner Lachy (1), Shane Frantz (1)