By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The difficulty of coming back from three-straight losses was compounded by illness and injury for North Pulaski on Thursday. The Falcons dropped their second-round game of the Hot Springs Trojans Invitational to Lafayette County 55-46, but were playing without two starters.
They weren’t just any two starters, they were the two tallest players on an otherwise small Falcon squad. Center Jeremiah Hollis and power forward Corviouseia Allen missed the game. Hollis is out with pneumonia and Allen has a nagging knee injury that was acting up. That left North Pulaski with basically a team of guards to battle a Lafayette County squad that featured two big inside players.
Despite the loss, Falcon coach Roy Jackson was the most pleased with his team since its season-open ing win over Joe T. Robinson.
“One thing about it, the kids played hard,” Jackson said. “I was very satisfied with the effort. Even though we lost, I thought it was the best effort we’ve had since the first game. We played solid man defense. I can really see we’re getting better every game.”
Jackson bragged the most on forward Fred Thomas, who played more minutes than usual, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
“He’s not but about 5-foot-10, maybe 5-11,” Jackson said. “That team had some big boys down low. We were boxing out just like we work on, but you get those big guys, sometimes they can just push you out of the way. But my kids were battling man. They were working their tails off. Fred especially, I was very proud of that young man.”
Poorly executed offense in the third quarter and a huge free-throw differential were the two main factors in the game.
North Pulaski led 29-26 at halftime, controlling tempo most of the first two quarters. The Cougars came out in the third quarter and slowed things down and turned it into a halfcourt game.
“I’m sure their coach told them at halftime they needed to work it inside,” Jackson said. “They were able to do that. We just weren’t patient when we got the ball on our end and just had some bad shot selection. Then they hit a three and that really got them going.”
Lafayette County outscored North Pulaski 17-5 in the third quarter and took a nine-point lead into the final frame. Each team scored 12 in the fourth quarter, with most of the Cougars’ points coming at the line.
Both teams made just 50 percent of their free-throw attempts. The difference was that North Pulaski shot 10 free throws, while the Cougars attempted 32.
North Pulaski made one more field goal than did Lafayette County, but the difference was the 11-point advantage at the foul line.
“We still have some things we need to work on,” Jackson said. “Shot selection is the main thing, but we have to shoot our free throws better, too.”
North Pulaski plays at 11:30 a.m. today against Gurdon to close out the tournament.
