Titans Fall At Home: Defenders Live Up To Their Name, Hold Mercer To 41

Samuel Warren
Herald Staff
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The Mercer County Titans faced their tough­est opponent so far in the 2023-24 season when the Bryan Station Defenders traveled to Harrodsburg.

In the Defenders’ 12 previous games, they scored 97 points or more on five different occasions while averaging 83 points per game. Bryan Station’s only loss came to Woodford County on Dec. 15.

Titan big man Trevor came down with the game’s opening rebound and handed the ball to sophomore Kaleb Murray.

Murray was never closed down and he contin­ued his run all the way to the basket where he finished his layup attempt a bit too strong. Ellis was there to tip in the shot though as it bounced off the rim and put the game’s first points on the scoreboard.

The Titans got into some foul trouble early and the Defenders took eight shots from the charity stripe in the first quarter alone.

Senior guard Owen Barnes went to the line one possession after missing two free throw attempts, and shot one for two this time, cutting Station’s lead to 13-10. Station forward Taeshawn Adams made an acrobatic turnaround tip-in as time expired in the first quar­ter to give his team a 15-10 lead.

The Titans struggled on the boards early. Many times they were in the perfect posi­tion and just couldn’t secure the ball with two hands. Station’s length was too much for Mercer to handle when Ellis wasn’t in the paint.