LINDEN–Thursday night, for the second time in a week, the Marengo Acad. Longhorns and the Southern Acad. Cougars clashed on the hardwood.

Varsity boys: Marengo 73, Southern 37

The Longhorn boys broke open a close game with a big second quarter and cruised to their second victory of the week over the visiting Cougars.

Three-point baskets by Jason Segura and Matt Collins kept Southern close in the early going, but the Longhorns’ Randy Martin nailed a three-pointer of his own at the first quarter buzzer to give Marengo a 14-9 lead. From that point it was almost all Longhorns as they exploded for 22 second-quarter points to lead 36-19 at halftime.

It was more of the same in the second half as Marengo improved to 5-1 on the season.

Leading the Longhorn effort was Martin with 16, followed by Trey Rowell with 14, Kyle Stephens and Jacob Harris with 10, Josh Dunn with 8, Thomas Fultz with 7, Beau Digmon with 5, Trace Stenz with 2, and Chris Whitaker with 1.

Segura finished as the Cougars’ high scorer with 13 points. Wes Henry collected 7, Brandon Montz 4, Travis Rhodes 4, Andrew Heurion 4, Collins 3, and William Woodall 2.

Varsity girls: Marengo 40, Southern 34

The Lady ‘Horns took the Tuesday match-up between the two AISA rivals by 23 points, but a late surge by the Lady Cougars took Thursday’s game to the wire.

After trailing 26-15 at halftime and 33-22 entering the fourth quarter, the Lady Cougars cut the Marengo lead to six, 35-29, with 2:42 remaining on a Libba McClendon three-pointer. But behind Christina Allen’s game-high 14 points the Lady ‘Horns were able to hang on for the narrow victory.

Allen was joined in double figures by Sydney Broadaway with 13 points. Also scoring for Marengo were Abbey Huckabee with 6, Amber Walker with 5, and Anna Edmonds with 2.

McClendon led the Lady Cougars with 11 points. Amber Miller scored 6, Elizabeth Hinton, Caitlin Osmer, and Leah Doss each scored 4, Allison Woods notched 3, and Heather Acker scored 2.

Jr. high girls: Marengo 29, Southern 15

The junior high Lady ‘Horns moved to 3-0 on the season with a 14-point win Thursday.

Christina Allen notched 8 to lead Marengo, followed Michelle Pritchett with 7, Abbey Huckabee with 6, Shirley Richardson with 4, and Shonna Hammond and Anna Edmonds with 2 each.

The gamne’s leading scorer was Allison Woods of Southern, who scored 10. Amber Miller finished with 3 and Lauren Miller with 2.

Jr. high boys: Marengo 35, Southern 23

Marengo’s junior high boys stayed undefeated with a second win over Southern. John Carlton led Marengo with 18 points, followed by Beau Digmon with 8, Chris Whitaker with 4, Dustin McIntyre with 2, and Trace Stenz with 1.