By BOB REDD
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — On a night when new inductees were enshrined in the Princeton High School Hall of Fame and senior members of the Tigers basketball team were honored, Aaron Ferguson scorched the nets for 30 points but Princeton faltered late and fell 72-66 to the Capital Cougars at Ralph Ball Court.
“I am disappointed for the kids because they have to have some success so that they can continue to believe and buy into what we are trying to tell them,” said Tigers head coach Ernie Gilliard.
“I am extremely proud of the effort they put forth tonight. We can be a good basketball team but we have to play with poise and we have to play with energy and effort. We have to play with intelligence and I thought we did that tonight.”
Prior to the game seniors Logan Angell, Zen Clements, Mason Kroll and Ian Southcott were honored along with their parents. At the half the late Everette K. Bailey, James (Allen) Graham, Adam Hughes and coach Jack Pack were enshrined in the school’s hall of fame.
On the court it was the Cougars who came out and snagged the early lead, pulling ahead 10-4. However a three point play and two free throws by Ferguson pulled the Tigers to within a point of the lead before the visitors went on a 9-4 run to close the first quarter.
The Tigers put on an exhibition in the second period on both ends of the court. Defensively Princeton held the Cougars to one field goal and six total points. Kroll was key on defense for the Tigers, helping shut down Jordan Kinney, who had scored 12 in the first quarter.
Princeton took a 33-25 lead into the half.
The Tigers’ lead grew as high as 12 midway through the third before the Cougars began to claw their way back.
Carrington Morris scored 13 points in the third and his free throw with 43.7 to play in the quarter gave Capital a one point lead. Southcott put Princeton back ahead with his trey just seconds before the buzzer sounded and the Tigers led 53-51 as the fourth quarter began.
Capital scored the first five points in the fourth to retake the lead before Logan McKinney connected on a three ball to pull Princeton even at 56. The lead then went back and forth until the final two minutes of play when Capital spread the floor and increased its lead at the charity stripe.
In the final minute the Tigers got to within three and it appeared to have tied the game on a Southcott trey, but the whistle had sounded as Princeton called time.
Ferguson’s three attempt with 10 seconds left bounded off and Kinney made three-of-four free throws in the final 3.5 seconds to give Capital the win.
In addition to Ferguson’s 30, Kroll tallied 12 for Princeton.
Capital was led by Morris with 25 and Kinney with 24.
CHS head coach Carl Clark said, “It was a back and forth game, the teams were evenly matched and we did some things at the end that allowed us to pull away from them. Our defense got us some turnovers that got us back in the ball game. We got some steals and easy baskets.”
Princeton plays tonight at Nitro.

At Ralph Ball Court
CAPITAL (10-4)
Carrington Morris 10 4-7 25, Tyrell Davis 1 1-2 3, Jordan Kinney 7 7-10 24, Bryce Goldsmith 1 1-5 3, Khalil Adkins 0 2-2 2, Aalik Harris 0 0-0 0, Miqal Bays 3 2-4 8, Dallas King 2 3-3 7, Totals 24 20-33 72.
PRINCETON (9-12)
Colton Fix 0 0-0 0, Jacob Whittington 0 0-0 0, Ian Southcott 1 0-0 3, Mason Kroll 5 2-5 12, Jay Palmer 1 0-0 2, Logan Angell 1 0-0 2, Zen Clements 2 0-0 4, Ashton O’Dell 3 0-0 8, Logan McKinney 2 1-1 5, Aaron Ferguson 9 12-13 30, Totals 24 15-19 66.
Capital...........................19 6 26 21 — 72
Princeton......................13 20 20 13 — 66
3-point goals: C - 4 (Morris, Kinney 3); P - 3 (Southcott, O’Dell 2). Fouled out: P - O’Dell. Technical Fouls: P - O’Dell.