COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers hosted Lehman in the final home game of the regular season as the seniors were honored on “Senior Night”. Unfortunately the final score of the game didn’t close out the way the hometown fans hoped as the Buccs lost 61-48.
It was still an enjoyable night as the three seniors, Ace Grear, Caleb Smith and Jayden Wackler, were praised by the entire Buccaneer fans in the gymnasium.
The highlight of the entire game was the first points put on the scoreboard for the Buccaneers by Ace Grear. He pulled down a rebound and was hammered by a Lehman defender as he put up a shot – a shot that went through the basket to give Covington its first two points in the game.
This basket by Ace Grear ignited the entire hometown crowd to stand up and cheer for his amazing performance.
Senior Caleb Smith didn’t score, but he played well as a team-first player by stepping into the game during critical situations when he was needed to execute the way his coaching staff expected him to play.
Plus, senior Jayden Wackler started the game even though he suffered an unfortunate ending injury earlier in the season. After the toss-up to start the game, Wackler intentionally forced a foul so he could be replaced by a teammate, which was an unselfish performance by a great individual who cares so much about his team. The entire Buccaneer hometown crowd stood up and clapped for Wackler as he headed to the bench.
The Buccaneers battled hard against a good Lehman team, but trailed 20-14 at the end of the first and closed the gap to 26-24 at the half.
Unfortunately, the third period was the overall difference in the game as Lehman outscored the Buccaneers 20-9 to take a 46-33 lead. Covington matched the Cavaliers in the fourth period with a 15-15 scoring total, but it wasn’t enough to make a comeback win.
Even though the final home game was a loss, Buccaneer coach Logan Carey was happy about his three seniors.
“Congrats to the seniors on a remarkable career with Covington basketball,” Carey said. “I told them after the game that when it’s all said and done, basketball is going to be a very minuscule part of their life, but all the memories they have of going to team camps, playing on an NBA floor, going to college games, and all the other shenanigans they get into, that’s what’s more important. I’ve seen them grow from when they were in 7th grade as their junior high coach to now. Their parents have done a really great job at raising some fine young men.”
In regards to how the final score was materialized, the Buccaneers hurt themselves with critical mistakes.
“As far as the game goes, turnovers killed us,” Carey explained. “We’ve seen zone defenses before and we just made it so much more complicated. The only team good enough to beat us is us, and that’s happened tonight.”
The loss drops Covington’s overall record to 3-16 and 3-9 in the TRC. The next game is a non-conference matchup at Tri-County North tomorrow.
| 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | FINAL | |
| COVINGTON | 14 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 48 |
| LEHMAN | 20 | 6 | 20 | 15 | 61 |
COVINGTON SCORING:
Brant Angle – 14
Kent Welborn – 8
Brairen Denson – 7
Rider Robbins – 6
Landin Cassel – 6
Boston Koffer – 3
Ace Grear – 2
Nicholas Carnes – 2
LEHMAN SCORING:
CJ Olding – 21
Evan. O’Leary – 16
Jackson Kennedy – 9
Gus Richard – 6
Braden Ulbrich – 6
Shane Frantz – 3
THREE-POINT SCORING:
Covington – Kent Welborn (2), Brant Angle (2), Boston Koffer (1), Brairen Denson (1)
Lehman – Shane Frantz (1), Braden Ulbrich (1)
