Boyd Co. scratched 7-year itch and Ashland Blazer from postseason to reach Rupp
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Boyd County ended a seven-year region drought, beating Ashland 59-49.
- Jacob Spurlock had 34 and 27 in key games and has 3,551 career points.
- Coach Anderson cited maturity, valuing possessions and better health.
Boyd County’s trip to Rupp Arena on Thursday for the second day of the UK HealthCare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16 state tournament’s first round has been a long time coming.
Seven years long.
Four straight 16th Region runner-up finishes long.
Ashland Blazer record-tying streak long.
But after two regular season losses to the Tomcats this season, despite having one of the best Lions teams in all that time and the most prolific scorer in 16th Region history, it looked like Ashland Blazer might become the first team in more than 100 years of Kentucky boys high school basketball to win eight straight region titles with the Lions once again in its wake.
The Tomcats’ undoing began in the 64th District final Feb. 26, as that historic Boyd player, Jacob Spurlock, the Lions’ Mr. Basketball finalist, nailed a go-ahead 3-pointer in the dying seconds of their 78-75 victory. It was his seventh 3-pointer of a 34-point night.
In the 16th Region finals a week later, the Lions’ 59-49 margin was larger, but the game was just as close until Boyd County pulled away at the free-throw line in the final minute. Spurlock scored 27 in that win, which finally shewed the Tomcats from the postseason and lifted the proverbial monkey off the Lions’ back.
“I’m not a very big guy anyway, and so it didn’t take a big monkey to drag me down,” Lions coach Randy Anderson joked Monday during a pre-tournament media conference. “In all honesty, to be that close for four years (was) a real big burden.”
Anderson felt like the win in the district final revealed one of the keys: His team valued possessions down the stretch. The Lions also entered this year’s postseason healthier than in recent years, though Anderson was adamant about not pointing to injuries as an excuse for past outcomes.
“We had a different mindset than we may have had in the past,” Anderson said. “ … It was a maturity factor, realizing that region games are a whole lot different than regular-season games.”
Four straight region runner-up finishes to Ashland are only part of Boyd’s tale of woe. The Lions handed the Tomcats their only home losses in both the 2022-23 and 2024-25 seasons and beat them three straight times in the 2023-24 season, including the first of back-to-back district titles. Each time Ashland earned the state tournament bid, anyway.
While Ashland is one of the most successful teams in state history with more wins than any other school (2,165) and more region titles than anyone else in the 16th (37), Boyd County had its share of success — 11 region championships before this year, the last in 2018.
Ashland’s streak began in 2019 with a title game win over Boyd. The Tomcats’ seventh in a row last season tied them for the longest run with two schools — Clay County from 1984 to 1990 and St. Xavier from 1937 to 1943.
Anderson, a native of Ripley, W.Va., has been Boyd County’s head coach since the 2010-11 season. He guided the Lions to the 2018 region title, which snapped a drought dating to 2000.
“Tuesday night, a weight was lifted,” Anderson said of their March 10 region final. “I’m just so happy for our kids, happy for our coaches, our community, our school. Everybody’s really, really excited.”
The continued sharpshooting of Spurlock, a 6-foot-3 guard bound for Youngstown State and among the frontrunners for Mr. Basketball, has been key. His 27.3 points per game rank first among all players in this year’s Boys’ Sweet 16 and sixth among all players this season.
He leads the state with 142 made 3-pointers, 18 more than the nearest shooter statewide (DeSales’ Cameron Bischoff) and almost 40 more than the next closest guy in the tournament (Hazard’s Trace Kincaid, 107).
Spurlock’s 16th Region career records include 3,551 points and 623 made 3-pointers
“If you’d have told my eighth-grade self that I would have 3,500 points, 1,000 rebounds playing in the Sweet 16, I would never believe it to be honest with you,” Spurlock said in a joint interview with Martin Media and The Jo Show conducted on X (formerly Twitter). “ … It’s really cool to actually do all these things.”
Thursday
UK HealthCare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16 first round game at Rupp Arena
1:30 p.m.: Marshall County (24-8) vs. Boyd County (28-6)
Tickets: Available for purchase at KHSAA.org/ruppboys/.
This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
