Augusta utilized nearly its entire bench in a win over Saint Patrick on Monday night at The Shamrock.
The Panthers had nine players score in a 63-39 win over the Saints, often subbing five for five throughout the contest with a busy week ahead.
“Wanted to save our legs. Got a game tomorrow night, Thursday night, Saturday. Played last Saturday, last Friday. We’ve got a busy week. I felt like those guys came in and did a pretty good job and kept us afloat,” Panthers coach Jason Hinson said.
Meanwhile the Saints weren’t as fortunate with reserves, entering the game with just seven eligible players due to some failing to meet academic standards and as the game wore on it showed, failing to score a point over the final 6:07 of the game.
“Hats off to Jason (Hinson), he’s one of the best coaches, if not the best in the region. He played to his strengths and our weaknesses. He played I think 16 players, he just ran them in and out on us and wore us down,” Saints coach Aaron Rigdon said. “We just ran out of gas. Three games in four days and six guys played all those minutes.”
Augusta came out hot early, hitting over 60 percent of their shots and did so efficiently with just two first half turnovers in building a 34-11 halftime lead.
The Saints started to get things going offensively in the third behind Jaylan Rigdon, who had a rather quiet first half but scored 10 third quarter points to keep them within range at 50-30 by the end of the third.
The Saints momentum continued into the fourth as they started the quarter with a 9-0 run to get within 11 at 50-39 with 6:07 to play.
“They show a lot of grit, a lot of effort. I’ve had to coach effort less this year than the previous two so I’m happy about that. If they keep fighting and we have our roster here and we could do more of the things that we like to do that play off our strengths defensively, we’re going to be fine,” Rigdon said. “Last year I learned patience, when you win one game you have to learn something and I think that’s one thing I learned was patience. We want to win, win, win every game but sometimes that’s not going to happen. As long as we learn what we’ve done wrong, learn what we need to improve on, fix that and just continue to play hard I still think we’ll be a team you don’t want to play come February or March.”
Hinson called time to stop the momentum, put his starters back in and they didn’t allow a point the rest of the way, scoring the game’s final 13 points in the 24-point victory.
“Defensively we wanted to hold them at 40 or under and they did that. It’s impressive that they could come back in and get the lead back up again. Sometimes that’s hard to do,” Hinson said.
Kason Hinson led the Panthers balanced attack from its starting lineup, scoring 17 points after scoring 75 points in a two-game stretch on Friday and Satuday.
“I wanted Kason to really find people tonight and thought he did a good job of that. We don’t need him scoring 36 points and losing. He’s not a selfish kid and he’s going to get others involved and thought he did a great job of that tonight,” Hinson said.
Cameron White followed with 16 points and nine rebounds, Preston Philpot adding 10 and Sam Appelman with nine as Augusta got back to the .500 mark at 2-2. They have a quick turnaround with Fayetteville-Perry, Ohio on Tuesday at the Panthers Den, a game they won, 64-45.
The Saints were paced by Rigdon with 16 points, who entered the game scoring 25.3 points per game. Chase Walton added 12 and eight rebounds. The loss dropped the Saints to 2-2 on the season as they return to action on Friday when they play at Robertson County.
It was Hoops for Hope Night at The Shamrock, all proceeds going to Cancer Fighters United Resource Center of Mason County and Bracken County. In-between the boys’ and girls’ game, cakes were auctioned, UK basketball themed gifts were auctioned, t-shirts, raffles and silent auctions all took place as over thousands of dollars were raised on the special night.
PANTHERS 63, SAINTS 39
AUGUSTA—19-15-16-13—63
SAINT PATRICK—8-3-19-8—39
Scoring
Augusta (63) – Kason Hinson 17, White 16, Philpot 10, Appelman 9, Archibald 5, Kylan Hinson 2, Kelsch 2, Brooks 2
St. Patrick (39) – Rigdon 16, Walton 12, Bandalon 7, A. Briseno 4
Game Stats
Rebounds: Augusta 25 (White 9), St. Patrick 22 (Walton 8)
3-Pointers: Augusta 6, St. Patrick 2
Free Throws: Augusta 5/12, St. Patrick 3/6
Turnovers: Augusta 8, St. Patrick 15
Records: Augusta 2-2, St. Patrick 2-2
