Clark County gets defensive in clutch Boys’ Sweet 16 win over Pikeville
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2022 Boys’ Sweet 16 coverage
Click below to read all of the coverage from Kentucky.com and the Lexington Herald-Leader during the Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament in Rupp Arena.
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Clark County’s 43-38 win over Pikeville on Friday in the UK Healthcare Boys’ Sweet 16 quarterfinals might have been hard on the eyes offensively, but if “defense wins championships” as the saying goes, the Cardinals delivered Exhibit A of why they’re a favorite to win it all on Saturday.
“It’s tournament play, and you’ve got to have toughness, and you’ve got to be able to guard,” Clark County Coach Josh Cook said. “People talk about our offense and how many points we can score — and we, obviously, have guys who can score and want to share the basketball — but it takes a lot of character and toughness to want to sit down and guard. And we’ve instilled that in our guys.”
Despite trailing 29-20 at the end of three quarters and missing their first 13 three-point attempts, Pikeville rallied within one point, 39-38, on Keian Worrix’s clutch three-pointer from the left wing with 12 seconds left in the game.
The Cardinals had been going for baskets to try to put the game out of reach, but they missed two of their last three field goal attempts and committed a couple of turnovers to give Pikeville some life. The Panthers went on an 8-1 run that included threes by Lukas Manns and Worrix to make things interesting late.
Cook didn’t question his players’ decisions down the stretch.
“When these moments come, I’m a big believer in ‘Don’t watch it. Go get it,’” Cook said. “And if that means make an aggressive play, go make an aggressive play. And I’m going to support them. If we make a mistake, I’m going to support them 100 percent.”
A foul sent Clark point guard Aden Slone to the line with the one-point lead. He made both free throws to put the Cards up 41-38 with six seconds left.
Clark County’s Jerone Morton fouled Worrix on the ensuing inbounds, sending Pikeville to the foul line instead of giving the Panthers a chance to tie with a three-pointer.
“I ain’t going to lie. I didn’t mean to foul,” Morton said. “I was just trying to stop the ball.”
It worked out. Worrix missed the front end of a one-and-one foul shot opportunity. Morton got fouled after the rebound and made both of his free throws to set the final margin. Clark never trailed throughout the game. Worrix led Pikeville with 13 points.
“I thought we made it as tough as you could for a team that has an explosive offense like they do,” Pikeville Coach Elisha Justice said. “We felt like we gave ourselves a shot to win the game and if a few shots fall just a little bit different … We feel like if we could hit one or two, then that would be a different ball game. But I’m just extremely proud of these guys.”
Clark County led the state in scoring in the regular season, averaging 84.1 points per game, but found it tough going against Pikeville (32-3), this year’s All “A” Classic small-school state champions who had length and speed to match them.
Clark County shot only 31.1 percent from the field and was 2-for-20 from three-point range. But at the same time, Clark held Pikeville to 28 percent shooting and 5-for-24 from long distance. Morton and Tanner Walton led Clark County with 11 points each.
“We just kept thinking the next shot was going in but — they didn’t,” Morton said, pausing for a bit of laughter in the press room. “So, we just wanted to focus on our defense and we knew if shots weren’t falling, we’ve just got to get more stops.”
Defensively, Morton lined up against Pikeville’s Rylee Samons, who scored 23 Wednesday against North Laurel in the first round. Against Morton and the Cards, Samons was held to two points, missing all 10 of his field goal attempts. Pikeville’s second-leading scorer, Nick Robinson scored one point.
“People know me for my offense, but they don’t know that I like to play really good defense and I like to guard the other team’s best player,” said Morton, who leads the team with 19.2 points per game. “I think it’s a challenge and I like taking on challenges.”
Early on, there was little hint this quarterfinal would turn into the slog it became. Clark County jumped to an 11-4 lead over the first five minutes and led 13-8 at the end of one quarter. But shots simply stopped falling for both teams in the second quarter. Clark County led 20-13 going into halftime.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 5:16 PM.
