The Hagerstown Tigers and Union County Patriots opened play in the Hagerstown sectional on Tuesday, March 3. The game was a rematch of a regular-season match played in Liberty on Dec. 12 that Hagerstown won 66-43. Even though the leading scorer for the Tigers in that game, Jaykob Troutwine, has been out for the season due to injury, the Tigers prevailed on Tuesday by a near identical score of 63-43. 

The Patriots took a 4-0 lead before the Tigers tied the game at 4-4 and then took a 6-4 lead on a Jonny Howard basket. The game was tied at 6-6, 9-9 and 11-11 before the Tigers took a 15-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

The Patriots retook the lead on a Nick Watterson three-pointer 17 seconds into the second quarter. Isaac Schmitz tied the game with a conventional three-point play, then hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Tigers a lead they would never surrender. 

Hagerstown’s Elijah French (24) scores and is fouled by the Union County defender. Photo by Sherry Stuart

The Tigers’ aggressive defense and rebounding created offense and pushed their advantage to 27-20 by halftime. They held the Patriots to five points in the third period to take a 45-27 lead into the fourth quarter. 

Howard led the Tigers with a game high of 17 points, Kaden Hall scored 11 points and Graham Vinson scored 10 points. Cameron Salsbery led Union County with 16 points and Watterson scored 12 points. 

The Tigers advance to the next game with Centerville on Friday, March 6 at 6 p.m. 

Tiger head coach Tyler Stotler was pleased with his team’s play. “It was a near carbon copy of the first time we played them,” he said. “Defensively, we were able to create turnovers and we were running the floor. Our seniors really played well tonight and we need that. Now we get our chance to play Centerville again and maybe shock the world.”

Hagerstown (13-9)      15    12   18   18   63

Union County (2-21)    14     6     5    18   43 

Hagerstown (63)

Vinson 10, Isaac Schmitz 9, Braydon Sanders 3, Lincoln Small 3, Nick Hileman 0, Hall 11, Ben Hokey 2, Howard 17, Keith Lumpkin 0, Elijah French 8, Cale Schmitz 0, Zerek Jett 0

Union County (43)

Isaiah Martinez 5, Keegan Lathery 0, Colton Johnson 0, Holden Harvey 4, Hudson Goins 2, Salsbery 16, Watterson 12, Cooper Grey 2, Aiden Otto 2

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A version of this article appeared in the March 11 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.

Dan Harney is a sports reporter at the Western Wayne News.