The Gibson Southern Titans took on their county rivals, the Princeton Tigers, Friday. The gym was filling up fast, as it was the Titan’s homecoming night. 

The Titans exchanged blows with the Tigers for the whole first quarter. The Tigers started off their defense in a 2-3 zone. This limited the Titans by not allowing them to get the ball inside to their bigs, Adam May and Mitchell Spindler. It was a very back and forth quarter, with both teams making shots and playing tough defense. 

The second quarter was much of the same. The Tigers came out of the 2-3 after a couple three’s from Carson Brindle, Preston Riggs and Aidan Neel. This allowed the Titans to run their offense. They had many nice looks at the basket but weren’t efficient on their execution. Even through their difficult first half, the Titans led 25-21 at half. 

“We played really tough in the first half, but we still struggled on the boards,” head coach Kyle Runyan said. “We allowed 7 first half offensive rebounds.”

The second half came rolling around and the Tigers gave the Titans some competition. Princeton went up by 3 heading into the 4th.

The Tigers extended their lead a little more in the fourth quarter. They were up by 12 at one point when the Titans starting making a run. Gibson Southern brought the lead back down to 4 with about 4 minutes to go in the game. 

“I thought we did well to come back at the end,” junior Preston Riggs said. “We just couldn’t hold on to it.”

The Tigers had 2 more stops then 2 more scores to put the Titans away. The Tigers improved their record to 8-5 while the Titans fell to 3-9.