louVirgin Valley High School basketball fans were not sure which Bulldog team would show up for Saturday evening’s non-league game against 1A Paranaghat Valley on Jan. 7. The Dawgs had just lost a grueling overtime game to Chaparral Friday night. The Bulldogs came out flat against the Panthers but still held an 11-4 lead over the cold shooting Panthers after one period of play.
Hogan Fowles hit the first shot of the night, a three ball from downtown and followed with another for the period giving him six points. The Bulldogs increased their lead to 21-9 after one half of play. Fowles put up another three ball during the period to lead the Dawgs.
Bulldog Andrew Memmott found the hot hand in the third period putting up two quick three balls to give the Dawgs a 27-11 advantage early in the period. Jayden Perkins hit a shot in the paint followed by 2 free throws from Fowles giving the team a seemingly unsurmountable 31-11 lead.
The Panthers coach called timeout to regroup his troops. The talk worked as the Panthers held the cold shooting Bulldogs the rest of the quarter while hitting 9 straight points to curb the Dawgs lead to 31-20 after three quarters. The Dawgs made critical mistakes during the Panthers run. The Panthers behind the hot shooting of Culen Highbe outscored the Dawgs 13-11 down the stretch but fell short 42-33.
Highbe led all scorers with 20 points and Hogan Fowles led the Dawgs with 12 points. Jayden Perkins added 9 points for the Dawgs and Memmott chipped in 8 points. Coach Sean FitzSimons could not have been pleased with the Dawgs 30 percent shooting for the night. The Dawgs hope to get their A game back against TECH on Thursday January 12.