Pickett County Falls To Undefeated Eagleville In State Quarterfinals

Pickett County vs Eagleville

State Tournament coverage presented by Risher Roofing

Story by Noah McKay

MURFREESBORO – The Pickett County Bobcats fell against the Eagleville Eagles in the Class 1A quarterfinals 69-66 on Thursday at the Murphy Center.

The Bobcats battled throughout, but were unable to overcome a slow start and clutch shots by the Eagles as they fell to EHS for the third time this season.

“I thought Eagleville did a really good job of making us uncomfortable on offense,” said first-year PCHS head coach Lee J Amonett. “That’s a team that hangs their hat defensively, making things hard on you, and I thought they did a good job of that, in particular, in the first half.”

The Eagles rattled off an 8-0 run late in the first quarter before a Cole Amonett jumper cut the Eagles lead to 21-15 after 1.

An EHS three stretched the lead to 26-19 before two free throws for Kelvin Cobb and a Brody Pryor layup cut the deficit to 26-23. James Bega hit a three late in the quarter for the Eagles to give them a 32-27 halftime lead.

Bega scored five straight in the third to stretch the lead 42-32. The Bobcats answered with a triple by Abram Phillips and two buckets by Nathaniel Cobb to cut the deficit to 44-41.

The Bobcats cut the deficit to one on two Cole Amonett free throws. The teams then traded buckets, with Phillips hitting two free throws to make it 58-55. The Eagles answered with a 5-0 run to take a 63-55 lead with one minute to play. The Bobcats cut it to three with 13 seconds to go but couldn’t get closer as they fell in the state quarterfinals for the second straight year.

“Hats off to Eagleville, they beat us three times,” said coach Amonett. “We had the best week of practice we’ve had all year. We were pretty loose. We finally got healthy. Our kids were pretty excited about it. That was a heck of a game, heck of a crowd, heck of an environment. We kept competing the whole way through. I thought that says a lot for us to step up and answer that call.”

Cole Amonett led the Bobcats with 23 points and three rebounds. Nathaniel Cobb added 18 with eight rebounds. Pryor tallied nine points with seven rebounds. Phillips added nine points and four rebounds while Kelvin Cobb scored nine points with six rebounds.

“The same mentality next year,” said Cole Amonett. “Come back and make it to the championship and win state. Obviously, there is that hunger left in the stomach after that.”

The Bobcats ended the year with a 30-5 overall record.