Despite a valiant effort, the season is over for the Dawson County High School varsity boys basketball team. The Tigers traveled to Callaway High School last Friday night and were defeated 59-50.

Dawson was matched up against the #1-seed in Region 5-AA. The Tigers were by no means intimidated. After falling behind by 17 points late in the third quarter, the Tigers rallied to play their best five minutes of basketball. The Tigers cut the lead to 52-50 with just 1:30 to play.

The Tigers missed a key one-and-one free throw with under a minute remaining and the score at 54-50. Dawson had to foul, which allowed Callaway to put the game out of reach.

“I was extremely pleased with our effort in a very difficult place against an outstanding team,” said Head Coach Thad Burgess. “We came back to play the best five minutes of basketball since I’ve coached here at Dawson County.”

Jacob Evans had a double-double in the contest. He scored 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.

Stephen Scaife and Stephen Johnson both scored in double digits with 10 points each. Both Scaife and Johnson were questionable for the game. Scaife was up most of the night with a sore throat and fever. Johnson was trying to battle back from a hamstring strain that he received in a Region 8-AA playoff game.

“I could not have asked for more of our players.  We really took control of their gym and game for those five minutes in the fourth quarter comeback. After their 9-2 run to start the game in the first 2 minutes, we played them even the rest of the game,” said Burgess.

Quan Bray led Callaway in scoring with 15 points.

Finishing up the scoring for Dawson County were Tyler Dominy and Levi Wilson with two points each.

The Tigers finished the season with an impressive 20-9 record.