Bell County battled but came up short on the road Tuesday night, falling 71-57 to No. 5 Madison Central in Richmond. The loss moves the Bobcats to 16-4 on the season.
Bell County showed early it wasn’t backing down from one of the state’s top teams.
The Bobcats controlled stretches of the first half and carried a 27-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Madison Central, however, took control in the third quarter.
The Indians caught fire from the perimeter and knocked down several contested shots to swing the momentum and build separation heading into the final period. Bell County continued to compete but couldn’t fully erase the deficit.
Ethan Buell led the Bobcats with 21 points, connecting on five 3-pointers. Braxton Ferguson added 19 points, and Blake Burnett chipped in 17 points to give Bell a strong offensive trio.
The Bobcats hit nine 3-pointers as a team but struggled to slow Madison Central’s balanced attack down the stretch.
Madison Central was led by Jake Feldhaus with 24 points while Luke Ash added 17 and Grayson Burton scored 15 as the Indians capitalized on their third-quarter surge.
Bell County coach Brad Sizemore was proud of his team’s effort against elite competition.
“I’m super proud of how hard our kids played tonight against a really good team on the road,” he said. “We had a solid first half going in the locker room up one. They had a huge third-quarter and came out and made several contested threes that we just really couldn’t recover from but our kids battled to the end. I saw a lot of good things and hopefully this is a game that is going to help us going down the stretch.”
