The Thursday, Feb. 5 basketball doubleheader between the Salisbury Panthers and Glasgow Yellowjackets certainly lived up to its billing with a large crowd on hand to watch a renewal of the intense rivalry between those two schools.
In action heard on KMMO-FM, the Panther boys scored the final five points of the evening, enabling them to rally at the end to win, 54-52 over the host Yellowjackets. That came after the Glasgow girls held the upper hand throughout while beating Salisbury, 40-31 knocking off the Panthers for the first time in 11 meetings, dating back to 2018.
The boys’ matchup was very close with the two sides trading the lead all night. Neither side was ahead by more than five points at any stage of the contest. Near the end, Glasgow’s Britton Barringhaus drained a three to break a tie and give the Yellowjackets a 52-49 advantage with two minutes left. After that, the home team never scored again as the Panthers’ Jake Peiffer made two free throws to cut the deficit to one, 52-51. A little later, the visitors got the ball back and Austin Cravens dented the scoreboard thanks to a reverse layup with 30 seconds remaining to put his team on top, 53-52. Later, Cravens tacked on a free throw with 10 seconds to go to bring about the final margin of 54-52. During the final half-minute of play, Glasgow had more than one chance to score the game-winning basket, but a couple of shots from three-point distance came up short, ending their hopes at the final horn.
Both teams are now 16-4 on the year as Salisbury won their ninth game in a row, thanks to 16 points by Austin Cravens and 12 more from Jake Peiffer. Meanwhile, Glasgow has dropped back to back outings for the first time this season as Jackson Meyer tossed in 22 points before fouling out during the final two minutes.
The girls’ game saw the Yellowjackets hold a lead which fluctuated between three and nine points most of the night. Glasgow was on top 11-4 after one quarter and 20-15 at the half. From there, the home team stretched their advantage to as much as 12 points near the end, before setting for a 40-31 victory. Improving to 15-6 on the year, the Yellowjackets received five threes and 19 points from Halle Fuemmeler as she tallied 14 of her points during the final half. Meanwhile, Salisbury dropped to 6-15 overall with Lydea Britt providing 12 points in a losing cause.
The KMMO microphones make their way to a different corner of Howard County on Friday night, when New Franklin hosts conference foes Northeast (Cairo) in a doubleheader. Pregame coverage on KMMO-FM 102.9 begins around 5:50 p.m., with the girls tipping off around 6 p.m. and boys following around 7:30 p.m. Also tonight on our airwaves, the Marshall Owls visit Fulton for an NCMC doubleheader, with the girls tipping off at 5:30 p.m. and boys around 7 p.m. All our games will stream on our website, KMMO.com. Following tonight’s contests will be another installment of the Round Ball Wrap Up, featuring area coaches recapping the past week’s games.