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December 17, 2009

Anonymous The Times-Tribune Thu Dec 17, 2009, 10:05 AM EST

By Les Dixon / Sports Editor

The North Laurel Jaguars are off to a dismal 0-5 start and head coach James Conway accepted the blame after seeing his team drop a 70-62 overtime decision to Rockcastle County at home.

“I take complete responsibility for our loss,” he said. “A game that close, a good coach finds a way to win it. I thought our kids played hard, we just could never seize any momentum, even when we had a lead.”

Coming into the season, many expected the Jaguars to take some lumps with leading scorer Josh Seidel graduating, but they didn’t expect this.

The Jaguars were tied with the Rockets at 32 apiece and held a slim one-point edge (44-43) going into the fourth quarter before Rockcastle County forced overtime and eventually pulled away by outscoring North Laurel 13-5 during the game’s final four minutes.

“I know our kids are getting frustrated because this is definitely not the start that they or we as a coaching staff anticipated,” Conway said. “We are also very banged up at the moment. Raymond Shears was a game time decision — he rolled his ankle in practice on Monday and it was as big as a baseball, so I really commend him on battling through it against Rockcastle County.

“Adrian Wardrup is still feeling the effects of a rolled ankle in a practice last week,” he added. “Dustin Baker is out until early January with an ankle injury and our backup post player, Lee Spencer, is still ailing over a slightly pulled groin muscle.”

With that said, Conway believes his team can still turn the season around.

“Hopefully we can get healed up both physically and mentally so we can get the ship righted,” he said. “Hopefully we can have a good showing in our tournament.”

North Laurel will open the Hometown Bank Hoopin-It-Up-Classic on Saturday against 13th Region foe Williamsburg at 8:15 p.m.

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