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Prior to the Wildcats home game against Boone County, the team's senior players and team managers were recognized. From left to right: Aaron Kirsch, Austin Kirsch, Alex Beyst, Hunter Jack, Ayden Pugh, Evan Stewart, Hunter Cox and Abraham Beebe. Photo taken by Sam McClanahan.
By Sam McClanahan
The Pendleton County Wildcats will face off against Nicholas County tonight in semifinal round play of the 38th District Tournament in Carlisle.
The Wildcats dropped both regular season contests against the Blue Jackets, but remain confident that they can pull off the upset while earning a spot in the district championship as well as the 10th Region Tournament.
" There's lots of positives to take into this game. Our guys are ready. We need to put four quarters together, rebound, and stay out of foul trouble," said Wildcats head coach Mason Monroe.
Pendleton County concluded its regular season with a pair of homes games that began with a Feb. 20 contest against Boone County. Prior to tipoff, the program honored its group of seniors: Alex Beyst, Austin Kirsch, Hunter Jack, Hunter Cox, Evan Stewart and Ayden Pugh, as well as team managers Abraham Beebe and Aaron Kirsch. Once the game got underway, Boone County was able to establish a quick advantage and took a 25-9 lead into the second quarter. From there, it would be all Boone County as the Wildcats would struggle to keep them off the boards and get stops on defense. A late offensive flurry by Pendleton County would result in a respectable final score of 73-60 in favor of Boone County.
On Feb. 22, the Wildcats hosted Dayton in the regular season finale and all the attention of this contest centered around senior Alex Beyst as he entered the game 30 points shy of reaching the 1,000 point mark for his career. Beyst would be aggressive early as he scored eight in the first quarter to help lead his team to a 19-13 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Beyst would add six more during the second quarter and the Wildcats took a 41-27 lead into halftime.
The third quarter would see Beyst and his team catch fire on offense as they blew the game open in distancing themselves from their opponent. Beyst would go onto score 13 points in the quarter as he knocked down four shots from three-point range to raise his total to 27 entering the final eight minutes. Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Beyst would be fouled on a three-point attempt and would stand at the free throw line with his chance at making history. He calmly sank all three of his free throws attempts to become the 21st player in Wildcats basketball history to reach 1,000 points for his career. He exited the court to a rousing ovation from the home crowd as he also finished with a new career-high of 30 points. Pendleton County went onto claim a decisive 88-40 victory.
" We battled against a really good Boone County team. Took care of business against Dayton. We get to send our seniors out with a win in their last home game and Alex Beyst scored his 1,000th point. I was really pleased with how Alex didn't force it in the second half and was finding his teammates. That got him in the flow of the offense and he ended up with a career high night 30 point night," Coach Monroe said.
"I'm very proud of our senior group. We had some up and downs this season, but the highs heavily outweigh the lows. This group wanted to prove they could win and they did just that. 14 wins so far is the most since 2017-18 season."