Titans Come Up Short in Rematch With West Jessamine

Jared Holt

Herald Staff

sports@harrodsburgherald.com

The Titans had their three game winning streak snapped Friday night at home in a rematch against 46th District foe West Jessamine (13-6), 82-69. It was also the first time in the four game span Mercer was held to under 90 points offensively. 

“They’re (West Jessamine) a good team, obviously,” said Mercer Head Coach Brian Britt. “And we played a great game. Little things here and there we need to tweak. Defensively, just communicating.” 

It was a close game early with four ties and five lead changes in the first quarter. With the game tied at 14-all, and the clock running down, Mercer’s Tommy Craig secured an offensive rebound and was able to get the put back off before the buzzer could sound giving the Titans the lead, 16-14, heading into the second quarter. 

The game remained close in the second period with the score tied at 19-all until a John Ingram basket gave the Titans a 21-19 lead with 3:15 left in the first half. From that point West Jessamine began taking control of the game little by little, out scoring Mercer 15 to 8 in the final three plus minutes of the half taking a 34-29 lead.

The three point shots and forward Chase Fain had a lot to do with the Colts taking the lead. West Jessamine as a team hit four three pointers in the second quarter compared to just one in the first with Fain hitting three of them. West Jessamine finished the game shooting 65 percent from behind the arch, 11 of 17, with Fain accounting for six. 

“Of their 11 threes, there were probably six or seven that we didn’t contest. They were hitting, Fain was on. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do, and that’s what we kept telling the kids: ‘You’ve got a hand in his face, just keep a hand in his face. There’s nothing you can do about that. Great defense,’” Britt said.

 Mercer didn’t help themselves any by shooting a lower free throw percentage than the Colt’s percentage from three point range at 50 percent, 11 of 22.