West Carter arrived in Frankfort for the State All 'A' Classic, and may have suffered from a case of 'out of town relaxation'. Not that traveling to Frankfort gives anyone a sense of euphoria or the feeling of being in a tropical locale, but the Comets stared the morning in a little bit of what the kids call a 'chill' mood. Or, it could have just been that normal teenage mood: 'I don't wanna' do nothing at 8 in the morning.' That mood almost cost them in their first round game. However, the Olive Hillians were able to do just enough work, and led by senior Derek Lawson's 23 points and 12 rebounds, managed to hold off the Trojans of Webster County, 61-51, to advance.
The Tomcats of Paul G. Blazer are not stranger to heading westward on I-64 this month. Having just come off appearing in the Joe B. Hall Classic ( losing to Perry County Central 69-54), the 'city kitties' traversed on to Grayson, where the Raiders of East Carter awaited. They may still be waiting. Ashland's Corey Gregg decided that anytime something orange came off the backboard, it was going into his hands. Gregg would pull down 18 rebounds(and record 25 points),as the Tomcats routed and romped the other Carter County team, 72-48. Ashland plays away again Friday evening, but won't nearly have to fuel up the bus as much. They play city-rival Fairview in the 'Wood.
Speaking of Fairview, the Eagles took to the road Tuesday as well, but they took 23 north to Lloyd to visit the 'Greenhouse'. As one would expect, the grow em' big on the farm. Fairview's Mike Terry led all scores on the evening with his 28, but it wasn't easy. The big factor in this one was, well, being big. When it comes to the 16th, nobody is bigger, size-wise, than Greenup County. The Musketeers used the sizable frames of 6'5'' Dustin Linthicum and 6'8'' Hayden Stephenson, to frustrate Terry and the Eagles all evening. Darius Jackson stuffed the state line in this one with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists in the 58-50 holding of Fairview.
Greenup County will play host to rival Russell Friday.
Those same Red Devils had something on their minds Tuesday. That thing was the early season 14 point loss that was handed down to them by Boyd County. Russell decided Tuesday was the perfect time to extract revenge, and extract they did. Russell was led by Kyle Skaggs' 11 points and 6 rebounds, not too mention a host of other 'Devils getting involved and stepping-up (Tyler Parsley, Logan Dehoff, and Jacob Porter, to name a few) to dish out a 63-44 drumming of the Scarlet and White at Marvin Meredith Gymnasium. As a team Russell shot 51% from the field and was 14 of 16 from the free-throw line. Russell also instituted it's own rendition of '40 minutes of hell', with full-court pressure that resulted in the Lions turning the ball over 19 times. With the progress that was very noticeable in Boyd's recent outings, this night was an obvious set-back for the improving Lions.
Rowan County may have been thinking they got a little ahead of themselves. But, you can hardly blame them. Rowan County tweaked their schedule this year to take on some of the state's best teams. It was ambitious an undertaking, but last year's state runner-up(due to the most dramatic of fashions), wanted to see what they were made of and to prove it was no fluke. To this point, Rowan had yet to record a win over any of these teams they had scheduled, but don't get us wrong, they proved they could hang with all of them, and probably beat them if they caught 1 or 2 breaks here and there.
The Vikings had another one of those games Tuesday, taking on #7 George Rogers Clark in Morehead. This was the second time these two teams would meet this season. The first was the championship game of the AIT, a 50-48 loss to GR Clark, which was another one that came down to the final seconds.(Just like the Bullit East , Joe B. Classic encounter last week) Maybe all it took was get one of these games on their home floor, because as they say 'there is no place like home.' In particular, there is no place like the final 30 seconds at home. Rowan's Adam Wing (committed to Evansville) made good on a count -the- basket opportunity with 30 seconds left in the game, being down one. The play and the resulting free-throw put the Vikes up 2 and they held on, finally beating one of those top tier teams, 60-58. Guard DJ Townsend matched George Rogers' 3 point exploits, the blue collar way. The 'and-1's' were key to the Vikings win, and Townsend absolutely put in work. Rowan also managed to keep Adam Fatkin in check, not allowing the AIT M.V.P to be too much of a factor into their destiny on this particular evening.
Townsend led the Vikings with 18 points, and was joined in double figures by Adam Wing' 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Jason Egan who pitched in with 12. Bopper Stenzel led The Cardinals of GRC with 18.
Tuesday's star performer : While it is hard to take away from Corey Gregg's 25 point/18 rebound performance, we have to give the nod to Adam Wings complete game against the #7 team in the state of 17 points and 14 rebounds. I think the opposition in the two games is the most recognizable factor to determine this one.
* Added bonus- Derek Willis talking about the Rowan County game from the Joe B. Classic:
And for you folks in the By Gawd, We are going to re-print the Herald-Dispatch's write-up from the Tuesday night Battle for Huntington on the hardwood:
HHS beats Spring Valley
January 26, 2012 @ 12:00 AM
GRANT TRAYLOR
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- After an entire season in which things had yet to come together at once, the second quarter of Thursday night's contest with Spring Valley was a welcome sight for Huntington High boys basketball coach Ron Hess.
Hess watched his team lock down defensively and convert turnovers into points in transition in a breakout quarter that led the Highlanders to a 69-43 win over the Timberwolves.
"We did a great job of switching off on our men tonight, getting down and playing defense without getting beat off the dribble," Hess said. "When you play defense, you get steals and rebounds that allow you to push the ball and get easy shots."
After Austin Keyser's field goal with 2:04 left in the first quarter pulled the Timberwolves within 11-10, Huntington High limited Spring Valley to just three field goal attempts in the rest of the first half by playing suffocating defense.
Spring Valley's offensive scheme is extremely technical in the half-court set, so for the Highlanders to limit the Timberwolves to just three field goal attempts in that span, it required lots of communication and team-oriented play -- something the team had lacked in its early-season struggles.
Following Keyser's basket, Huntington High reeled off 21 straight points -- 17 of which came from Chancelor Wooding and Toquan Hayes.
Wooding started the game hot and outscored the Timberwolves by himself in the first half, hitting four 3-pointers and scoring 16 points as the Highlanders took a 36-15 lead into the locker room. He finished with 19 points in the contest.
While Wooding was the outside threat, Hayes came off the bench with lots of energy and had 17 points for the Highlanders, who had 11 different players score.
Keyser led the Timberwolves with 15 points as the Huntington High defense focused its efforts on Spring Valley leading scorers Eli Parker and Hunter Waugh. The duo combined for nine points in the game.
"If you let them run their sets and get open sets, they are going to knock their shots down," Hess said. "They are a great shooting team and they do a good job setting picks, but we did a great job switching off and once we did that, the guy on the weakside rotated over to help-side defense. We looked very good tonight."
For Huntington High (5-7), it is the second-consecutive game in which the team has dominated the game with its defense. The Highlanders will take their momentum on the road Friday night at Riverside.
Spring Valley (4-10) lost for the fourth time in a five-game stretch in which they've played Ironton, George Washington, Fairland, Mountain Mission (Va.) and now Huntington. The Timberwolves look to get back on track Friday with a home contest against Nitro.
SPRING VALLEY 10 5 9 19 -- 43: Keyser 15, Parker 5, Campbell 6, Waugh 4, Wellman 5, Kilgore 3, Brewer 3, Steele 2
HUNTINGTON HIGH 16 20 14 19 -- 69: Miller 6, Sayles 6, Wooding 19, Demoss 2, Brown 3, Tubbs 2, Hayes 17, Crews 1, Nicks 7, Shackelford 5, T. Martin 1
No comments:
Post a Comment