WEST MILTON – It wasn’t pretty, but the Covington Buccaneers were able to pull out a 48-46 victory over Milton-Union on Tuesday – a victory that was capped by a bucket at the buzzer.
Overall, it was one of those nights where it seemed everything didn’t go Covington’s way. The Buccs struggled with turnovers, rebounds and missed shot opportunities.
Fortunately the Buccaneers were able to find a way to give themselves a chance to win at the and took advantage of that opportunity as Britton Miller drove by a Bulldog defender to hit a runner at the buzzer.
“It’s good to get a (win) streak going, but with the way we played for three-and-a-half quarters, we didn’t deserve to win it,” commented Covington coach Logan Carey. “We preached in practice about having patience, and when we were patient, good things would happen. When we rushed things, that’s when the bad things took place, and there was plenty of bad things tonight.”
The bad things for Covington were turnovers, not controlling the boards and so many missed shots on wide open looks. Much of the credit for Covington’s struggles goes to the effort Milton-Union gave.
“Milton is always a well coached team especially under Berner, and they made us make some bad decisions tonight,” Carey said.
These struggles by Covington gave Milton-Union a 10-7 lead after one, a 28-22 lead at the break and a 42-35 lead at the end of the third.
Covington went all out by pressing in the final frame, which limited Milton-Union to just four points in the final period and put the Buccs in position to make a comeback. The Buccs forced several turnovers and eventually took a 46-44 lead late in the game on a three-pointer by Bryson Hite.
“With all that being said, when we needed clutch steals, shots, or free throws, we got them when it mattered most,” said Carey. “Nice job by our boys to pull that one out and show some fight and resilience. They could’ve given up, but they didn’t.”
The Bulldogs tied the game at 46-46 on a bucket by Zach Lovin to force a Buccaneer timeout with just over one minute left.
After returning to the floor, Covington put together its best possession of the game by implementing what has been preached in practice over and over – patience. The Buccs passed the ball around for an open shot opportunity and that opportunity finally materialized in the waning seconds as Britton Miller drove down the center of the lane and connected on a runner at the buzzer.
The win improves Covington’s overall record to 2-3 and 1-3 in the TRC, while Milton-Union drops to 0-6 overall and 0-4 in the league.
Next up for the Buccs is a stiff challenge on Friday as they host Lehman Catholic in another critical league match-up.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
Covington: 7 – 22 – 35 – 48
Milton-Union: 10 – 28 – 42 – 46
COVINGTON SCORING:
Britton Miller – 14
Bryson Hite – 13
Brogen Angle – 10
Tanner Palsgrove – 7
Connor Humphrey – 4
MILTON-UNION SCORING:
Braden Schaurer – 12
Zach Lovin – 9
Wyatt Kimmel – 8
Titus Copp – 7
Tyler Combs – 7
Levi Brumbaugh – 3
THREE-POINT SCORING:
Covington: Britton Miller (3), Brogen Angle (3)
Milton-Union: Titus Copp (1), Wyatt Kimmel (1)
