The dagger that might have finished Athens on Saturday night came early. At the end of the first quarter, a Logan player made a leaning 3-pointer.
After that, the Bulldogs were not able to find a rhythm, and ended up losing to the Chieftains 60-44 in Jim Myers Gymnasium.
After that Logan 3-pointer, Athens had nothing going offensively. It scored one point in the second quarter, on a Dalton Cozart free throw. The Bulldogs did not get their first basket after the first quarter until two minutes into the third quarter, an Isaiah Butcher layup.
“We were terrible,” coach Mickey Cozart said. “We have to share the ball; we have to be aggressive with what we want to do on offense.”
It could have been the missed shots, or it could have been the turnovers that was the Bulldogs problem Saturday — or it could have been a mix of both. The Bulldogs shot 15-of-40 and turned the ball over 12 times.
Some of the struggles can be placed on the fact that the players were tired — they played a long, grueling game just 24 hours before.
“You’re going to have that, guys are tired,” Mickey said. “We had a very emotional game on the road at Alexander last night.”
Even with the struggles in the second quarter, Athens tried its best to bring itself back into the game, but it might have been too little, too late.
The Bulldogs outscored the Chieftains 31-27 in the second half and cut their led to 11 at one point early in the fourth quarter, but that smaller gap did not last long.
This loss, along with the loss to Alexander Friday night, drops the Bulldogs to 2-4 overall and 2-1 in the Tri-Valley Conference. They will need to figure out some things quickly, as tough games loom ahead, with out-of-conference opponent Marietta and rival Nelsonville-York as the next two games.
“We’re going to go play,” Mickey said. “We’re going to start having some fun. We have some high hopes for this team.”
