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By John Henson

Sports Writer

One season after most of their roster won a fifth- and sixth-grade county championship, the Rosspoint Wildcats moved up a level and repeated as unbeaten champs as they pulled away in the second half for a 55-43 victory over James A. Cawood on Monday at Harlan County High School.
After two blowout losses to the Wildcats in the regular season, JACES led most of the first quarter and stayed close the entire first half. The lead changed hands seven times in the second quarter before the Wildcats went up 24-22 at the break on a Nathan Barger 3-pointer. Rosspoint pulled away with a 15-1 run to start the third period sparked by a pair of 3s from Eli Joseph.
“The boys were sort of confused about what defense they were playing. They were playing our tails off,” said Rosspoint’s Hobie Boggs, who captured his 10th county title in 22 years coaching the seventh- and eighth-grade team. “We went in at halftime and made some adjustments. We went to our man-to-man offense and it opened things up in the middle for us.”
Hudson Faulkner, a seventh-grade forward, led a balanced Rosspoint attack with 20 points. Barger and Joseph, both eighth-graders, added 12 and 10 points, respectively. Seventh-grade point guard Trey Creech scored nine.
Seventh-grade guard Easton Engle scored 20 points and eighth-grade forward Andrew Vance added 15.
Boggs has coached several strong teams at Rosspoint and said the current group has a place among the elite squads in school history. The Wildcats finished the season at 17-0 with several of the seventh graders also playing on a countywide squad that has competed on a statewide level after winning last year’s sixth-grade 13th Region title.
“I kid the boys that they are second or third on the list, but they are right up there with the best,” he said.
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Caysen Farley scored 11 points and Aiden Napier added nine as Evarts pulled away in the second half for a 43-31 victory in the third-place game.
Leland Cope led Wallins with 10 points.
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Rosspoint (55) — Trey Creech 9, Eli Joseph 10, Nathan Barger 12, Hudson Faulkner 20, Carson Sanders 4.
James A. Cawood (43) — Easton Engle 20, Andrew Vance 15, Taylor Daniels 5, Adrian Fields 2, Win Cooper 1.
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Evarts (43) — Aiden Napier 9, Caysen Farley 11, Jesse Pendergrass 4, Salem Smith 3, Braxton Anglian 8, Jacob Moore 2, Rayce Bryant 4, Jake Wright 2.
Wallins (31) — Mason Howard 7, Leland Cope 10, Landon Blackwelder 6, Sam Carmical 5, Jayden Sergent 1, Charlie Thomas 2,