Youth and inexperience have proved too much to overcome in this early portion of the 2015-16 basketball season for the Clinton County Bulldogs as they have given up three decisions in as many outings to get the campaign off to an 0-3 mark.

The Bulldogs gave up two losses on the road and a loss in the Lindle Castle Gymnasium during the first week of basketball action.

The season got underway with a 80-66 loss at Casey county, followed by a home opening loss against Franklin-Simpson on Friday night by a score of 62-50, rounded out by road loss to the Raiders of Warren East 66-52.

Clinton County 66

Casey County – 80

Opening the 2015-16 basketball season in its old Liberty Gymnasium, the Casey County Rebels honored former coach Bob Payne with a throwback night that saw the Bulldogs eventually dropping the 14 point decision, 80-66.

With only six lights showing the teams the way last Tuesday night, it was the Bulldogs that got off to what appeared to be a great start.

With Jamison Summers drawing the first score of the night on two free throws, he and teammate Colin Langford combined to send the Dawgs out in front 8-0.

Casey County was soon to get its own game in order, however, and as the first quarter closed out, it was a race to the buzzer between the two hard running, often shooting teams.

Clinton County, relying mostly on the scoring of Summers, Langford and Brett Gibson, managed to hold onto a narrow 22-19 lead at the end of the opening quarter of action.

Clinton County’s Gibson dropped in the first basket of the second quarter, with Casey County quickly countering and from that point through the end of the remainder of the first half, the race was on.

There was plenty of offense for fans to enjoy in the second quarter of play, with both teams putting up a barrage of points as the first half closed with the teams deadlocked in a tie at 43-43

Casey County began to slowly take control of the contest as the third quarter got underway,, pulling out at one point to an eight point lead, 53-45, and eventually controlling a seven point lead at the end of the quarter, 59-52.

The Bulldogs seemed to simply run out of steam as the fourth and final quarter of action played out, with Casey County controlling the upper hand on both ends of the floor, outscoring the Dawgs 21-14 to earn the 14 point win, 80-66.

Individual scoring for Clinton County was:

Summers 26

Gibson 15

Langford 12

Smith 10

Michael Collins 2

York 1

Clinton County – 50

Franklin Simpson – 62

A late game comeback effort against a good shooting, strong Franklin – Simpson team last Friday night proved to be a case of “too little, too late” for the Bulldogs of Clinton County as they eventually gave up their first loss in front of a home crowd, 62-50.

With one of the top rated players in Kentucky high school basketball this season in Davin Tavin, the Wildcats were quick out of the gate and ran with plenty of energy down the stretch.

Clinton County trailed at the end of all four stops in the contest, falling to 21-7 deficit by the end of the opening quarter of action, and finding themselves trailing by 22 points at halftime, 34-12.

After being down 25 points at the end of three quarters of play, Clinton County did manage to pull together in the final eight minutes of action to mount a comeback run that clearly got the attention of the Wildcats and it’s coaching staff.

The Bulldogs outscored the Wildcats 26-13 in that final quarter of play, but the hole they were in when the comeback began, proved to simply be too much to overcome for the young and inexperienced Bulldogs.

The comeback effort came much to the credit of Michael and Jeffrey Collins, with the brothers combining for 25 second half points to boost the Bulldogs.

Clinton County eventually backed off in the final seconds from the strategy of sending the Wildcats to the line as the final buzzer sounded to see the two teams separated by 12 points with Franklin Simpson claiming the 62-50 win.

Individual scoring for Clinton County was:

Jeffrey Collins 13

Michael Collins 12

Summers 10

Smith 6

Langford 5

Harlan 3

Choate 1

Clinton County 52

Warren East – 66

It was a tale of ups and downs Saturday night for the Clinton County Bulldogs in a game at Warren East High School that ended, unfortunately for the Dawgs, with more downs than ups and a 66-52 loss.

The defeat sees Clinton County closing out the first week of the season with a 0-3 mark.

Clinton County got off to a slow start as the contest first got underway with the Raiders jumping out to a 9-0 lead.

The Bulldogs bounced back, however, and by halftime were in control of a 36-30 lead and were beginning to show a hint of being on the trail of the first victory of the season

The Bulldogs continued to play well as the third quarter got underway, rolling out to a onetime 45-37 advantage with just over three minutes remaining in the period.

It was then that Warren East came storming back and the Bulldogs at the same time found themselves unable to do anything to hold the Raiders off.

With a 12-2 run of their own, the Raiders overcame Clinton County’s lead to take a 49-46 lead of its own and it proved to be the last time the Bulldogs would actually be in contention.

With a cold shooting streak having completely set in on the Dawgs, Warren East began to methodically build it’s lead throughout the final eight minutes of action, eventually laying claim to the 66-52 win.

Individual scoring for Clinton County was:

Summers 23

Gibson 10

Langford 8

M. Collins 5

Smith 4

York 2

Brett Gibson pulled up for a three pointer during Clinton County’s season opener against Casey County Tuesday night. The Dawgs played an up-tempo game during the first half and was tied at 43 at the half, but a cold shooting second half led to the first loss of the season, 80-66.