It was a tail of two halves, and for the Aurora Houn' Dawgs, they are glad they won the second half in their first-round game of the 68th Greenwood Blue and Gold Tournament Blue Division game against #8 seeded Camdenton. The Houn's won the game, coming from behind, 61-56.
A high-scoring first quarter favored Camdenton, as they jumped out to a 23-15 lead behind Jake Decker's seven first quarter points.
Aurora got as close as four early in the second quarter, but seven quick points by Laker Kullen Carlock pushed the lead to 11, 34-23. By the halftime buzzer, Camdenton was in control, leading 36-27.
But the Houn' Dawgs listened intently to their head coach Daniel Cutbirth at the break, and opened with a 5-0 run to cut the Laker's lead to four, 36-32.
"We talked about the fundamental type stuff," said Cutbirth after the win. "It was really just simple things like making positive passes and running our press-breaker the way we need to. And maybe a little encouragement to start rebounding and quit turning the ball over." Aurora had 11 first half turnovers that were converted into 20 Camdenton points and were out-rebounded by double-digits.
Aurora had four consecutive trips down the floor that resulted in turnovers mid-way through the third quarter and that allowed Camdenton to push the lead back to 12, as Carlock scored five straight and Jordan Knight nailed a long trey.
But, once again the Houn's refused to go away, as Jordan Fronabarger hit two three-pointers and Austin Carmichael added four free-throws and Aurora trailed by just one after three quarters, 45-44.
"I don't like playing in JQH, to be honest," said Fronabarger after the win. "It's too bright. Coach told us after our loss to Hollister that it was time to step it up and play like we know we can. And after Billy (Meredith) took that hit, coach said it was the first time he had seen fire in our eyes." Meredith ran into a solid charge set by Camdenton's Decker mid-way through the fourth.
The Houn's outscored Camdenton in the third quarter 17-9 and then owned the final stanza, limiting the Lakers to just 11 points while putting up 17 more. Aurora got the lead to 59-52 with under a minute remaining on solid free-throw shooting, as they hit five in a row, four of those by Carmichael, to secure the win, 61-56.
"This sophomore class has been told how great they are all their lives," said Cutbirth, "and I told them they might win some games because of that but they would never win the big game. Today they won the big game."
Fronabarger led Aurora with 18 points, followed by 10 each for Garrett Bader, Logan Bader and Austin Carmichael.
Camdenton was led by Carlock's game-high 24.
