After two emotional wins last week, the Argylls, despite a hard-fought effort on Friday evening, came up just short, falling to the Lapel Bulldogs by a score of 75-70.
Madison-Grant got off to a great start in the first quarter, taking a 19-12 lead after the first eight minutes, but the Bulldogs battled back in the second, outscoring the Argylls 20-12 to turn their seven-point deficit into a one-point halftime advantage.
Lapel got to the foul line multiple times in the second quarter, knocking down 13 free throws.
“The difference in the first half was we got into foul trouble,” Trout said. “They hit 13 free throws of their 20 in the second quarter, which is a lot. Lance was on the bench the whole first half because of fouls, and Grant had to go to the bench with five minutes to go in the first half. So not only were they shooting free throws almost every trip down the floor, but we had two starters sitting on the bench.”
From that moment on, the two teams were separated by just a few possessions. The Argylls fell behind eight a few times and were able to cut the Lapel lead to one early in the fourth, but they could not regain the lead.
Despite the loss, however, Trout was proud of how his kids played against a good team coming off an emotional week.
“I really didn’t know how we would come out this evening,” Trout said. “After everything we went through last week, the emotions and everything…it’s hard to bounce back from something like that. But I was really pleased with our effort and execution and everything. We made a couple of mistakes, but overall, we played pretty well. We were focused. We were mentally and physically tough.
“There were a lot of good things tonight.”
Justin Moore put together an outstanding performance, scoring 23 points, while Kaden Howell scored 16 points. Grant Brown was one assist short of a triple-double, finishing with 11 points, 10 boards, and nine helpers.
