High school notebook: Tiny Jackson City heating up on the court

It’s a good time to be a basketball fan in Breathitt County.

Breathitt County’s girls are one of the 14th Region’s two 20-win teams this season and are considered a region contender. The male Bobcats are 19-12 under new coach Robert Amis a year after finishing well below .500.

But it’s Jackson City, the small independent school located in the county seat, that’s making the loudest noise as of late. The Tigers (13-15) secured their first berth to the 14th Region Tournament since 2008 with a 61-57 overtime win over Wolfe County on Monday. They’ve won nine of their last 10 games after starting the season 1-11. How the small-school team — of the 37 boys who attend Jackson City, 12 play basketball — came by some of those victories is arguably even more exciting than the recent success

Down 81-79 in double overtime, Camron Turner hoisted a 65-foot prayer that banked in to give Jackson City a win over Buckhorn a few weeks after losing to the Wildcats by 23 on the road. That kicked off a seven-game win streak, during which the Tigers defeated Breathitt County for the first time since 1934 (!!!). Its latest two wins — versus Lee County on Senior Night and over Wolfe County in the 55th District semifinals — also went into extra time.

“We made some big plays there at the end to beat ’em,” Jackson City Coach Karmit Back said of his team’s latest win. He added with a laugh, “We shot really, really bad from the free-throw line and luckily they did too.”

Black, who played at Jackson City, is in his seventh year as the coach at Jackson City after assisting for nine years. He thought a front-loaded schedule — the Tigers played Hazard, Letcher County Central and Perry County Central, three of the four winningest teams in the 14th Region this season — would pay dividends at the end of the season. “It’s lookin’ like a very good decision right now,” he said.

Turner, a freshman who’s the Tigers’ leading scorer this season, is “probably gonna be one of the best players I’ve ever coached,” Black said. But, Jackson City’s next three leaders — Sherman Collins, John Turner and Zachary Hollan — are barely behind Camron in scoring average. “We’ve got four guys on that team who could lead us any given night,” Back said.

It’ll need need each one of them to step up if it’s to upend Breathitt County in this season’s rubber match (the Bobcats won the first meeting 85-62). Breathitt advanced past Riverside Christian with ease to set up the finals matchup at 7 p.m. Friday at Riverside Christian.

“I think everybody in the county will probably try to get in that game,” Back said.

Fairview flying high

Fairview boys’ coach Derek Cooksey continued to tell his team not to let wins and losses dictate what kind of team they were throughout the year, guidance which seems to have resonated with his Eagles, who returned to the scene of their biggest loss in the regular season and turned the tables.

The Eagles ended Ashland Blazer’s 24-year streak of 16th Region Tournament appearances with a convincing 68-45 win over the Tomcats in the 64th District semifinals on Monday. Dylan Romine had 22 points on 11-for-16 shooting — he was perfect inside the arc — for the Eagles, who had lost seven straight and 14 of their last 16 to end the regular season.

They didn’t win a lot of games, but the Eagles, now 10-18, were competitive with teams thought to be better than them. Among the tough losses was a 59-56 overtime battle at home to Blazer last month, two weeks after losing to the Tomcats by 45 at their place on Jan. 12.

Midway through the season Fairview had to rediscover itself after a few departures and some changes in philosophy. Junior Mason McIntyre played shooting guard his entire career until asked to assume point guard duties in early January. Alex Roy, a 6-foot-4 quarterback who will walk on at Marshall, is among the state’s best rebounders and has upped his game offensively.

“We asked a lot of kids to step in and fill roles they probably had never been asked to do before,” Cooksey said. “We were searching for an identity when a lot of teams were hitting their stride at midseason.”

Now Fairview is in its first district finals since 2012, where it will take on Boyd County for a shot at its first district title since 2006 at 7 p.m. Friday. The Eagles will be underdogs there — they dropped both regular-season meetings by 10 — but recognize they’re capable of putting a nice bow on a tumultuous season.

“A lot of kids that face adversity like that, it’s easy to just quit,” Cooksey said. “ ... I think it speaks a lot about our kids.”

Wild finish in Pike County

▪ Austin Woolum and Garrett Fannin combined for 60 of Belfry’s points, but it was Koleston Blankenship who hit the deciding shot at the buzzer in the Pirates’ 80-78 triple-overtime win over Pike County Central in the 60th District semifinals on Tuesday. Blankenship took an inbound pass from Fannin and finished with his left hand to send Belfry to the 15th Region Tournament for the 13th time in 14 seasons.

Woolum had a game-high 35 on 14-for-23 shooting while Fannin added 25 on an 8-of-17 clip. Tyler Burnett had 25 points for the Hawks in the loss. Belfry was scheduled to play 15th Region favorite Lawrence County, which snapped the Pirates’ streak of 12 straight regional appearances last season, in the 60th District finals on Thursday.

Wrestling tidbits

Some leftover nuggets from last weekend’s KHSAA State Wrestling Championships:

▪ After six years of work, Lafayette’s Landon Young finally realized his dream of becoming a 285-pound state champion. He said he wasn’t nervous when he took the mat Saturday. “(God) blessed me with all the opportunities I already had so I knew if I just went out there, did what I knew how to do and do what I’ve been doing for the last six years, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be a state champion.”

The UK football signee also gave ample credit to coach William Green, whom he called the best coach in the nation. “I guarantee ya there ain’t gonna be another man out here that’s 58 years old that does everything in practice you do,” Young said. “He goes out every single day in practice and wrestles all of us live. He does all the conditioning we do, every single little bit, so he understands what we’re going through when he tells us to do something.”

Green wrestled one season at the University of Kentucky, which had a wrestling team from 1975 to 1984.

Young was a Class 3A discus state titlist in track and field last year. He also throws shot put for the Generals. “Let’s go see if I can’t go get two more state championships,” he said.

▪ Union County won its first team title since 2014 and its third in the last six seasons. The Braves had gone 25 years without a team title before winning back-to-back trophies in 2007 and 2008. Their five titles this century are the most by any team.

▪ Woodford County finished as the runner-up to Union, giving the Yellow Jackets their best finish at state since 2007.

Region coaches of the year

The Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches named its boys’ and girls’ region coaches of the year on Monday.

Allen Feldhaus of Madison Central was recognized as the top 11th Region boys’ coach. He guided the Indians to an 18-11 regular-season record, including a 7-3 mark against regional foes, and a top-20 ranking in the Cantrall Ratings.

Franklin County’s Joey Thacker was named the 11th Region girls’ coach of the year. The Flyers were 23-4 in the regular season and ranked in the top 10 the entire season. They won their first 10 games and 10 of their last 11 heading into the postseason.

Other boys’ coaches of the year (by region): 1st, Brad Stieg, Paducah Tilghman; 2nd, Frankie Smith, Christian County; 3rd, Tim Riley, Owensboro Catholic; 4th, D.G. Sherrill, Bowling Green; 5th, J.C. Wright, Central Hardin; 6th, Korey Craddock, North Bullitt; 7th, Willie Feldhaus, Male; 8th, Steve Simpson, South Oldham; 9th, Ryan Schrand, Covington Holy Cross; 10th, Mike Code, Bishop Brossart; 12th, Benny Blanton, Rockcastle County; 13th, Brad Sizemore, North Laurel; 14th, Shannon Hoskins, Perry County Central; 15th, Travis York, Lawrence County; 16th, Jeremy Webb, West Carter.

Other girls’ coaches of the year (by region): 1st, Scott Sivills, McCracken County; 2nd, Brent Gibson, Madisonville; 3rd, Michael Robertson, Owensboro Catholic; 4th, Brad Bonds, Allen County-Scottsville; 5th, Chris Blaydes, Green County; 6th, Keith Baisch, Mercy; 7th, Champ Ligon, Male and Josh Leslie, Eastern; 8th, Clay Birdwhistell, Anderson County; 9th, George Stoll, Newport Central Catholic; 10th, Beau Menefee, Campbell County; 12th, Cassandra McWhorter, Lincoln County; 13th, Derrick Akal, Harlan; 14th, Wallace Bates, Breathitt County; 15th, Laura D. Campbell, East Ridge; 16th, Paul Ricker, Menifee County and Mandy Layne, Russell.

Etc.

▪ The KHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships began Thursday in Louisville. The boys’ finals are set for 10 a.m. Saturday with the girls’ finals scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. start.

Heading into the 8th Region meet, where her team won its ninth straight combined title, Paul Laurence Dunbar Coach Sydney Witzky felt like the Bulldogs could make a strong run at a state combined title.

“If I look at all the years I’ve been coaching and at what we’ve got coming in our future, if there’s ever a shot for us to win a combined title in this 10-year time frame, this would be the year,” Witzky said. “We would have to swim out of our minds crazy fast in order to do that. I don’t think we would win just a girls’ title or a boys’ title, but there is a small possibility we could win a state championship combined. I always like to throw that little gem in there at them to try and motivate them.”

▪ Madison Southern’s girls defeated Berea in the 44th District semifinals on Monday, which gave the Eagles their fifth straight win over the Pirates. Madison Southern star Briana Lanham had 17 points and 19 rebounds — 12 on the offensive end — to go with five assists and two steals. Ashlynn Clark had 22 points, seven assists and two steals for the Eagles, who meet rival Madison Central in the 44th District finals at EKU at 6 p.m. Friday.

▪ Lexington boasted two top finishers at the UK High School Indoor Invitational at Nutter Fieldhouse on Saturday. Dunbar’s William Allen was first in the boys’ 400-meter dash while Jaron Brooks of Henry Clay came away with the boys’ high jump title, setting a meet record at 7 feet, 2 inches.

Henry Clay’s Davonte Robinson finished fifth in the boys’ 60-meter dash while Tates Creek’s Langston Love ended up eighth. Bryan Station’s Isaiah McCall was sixth in the boys’ 60-meter hurdles.

▪ Tyler Hancock, a former quarterback at Lexington Catholic who most recently was a graduate assistant under Mark Stoops at UK, accepted a quality control position focusing on special teams at Maryland. His first day was Feb. 15.

▪ Lawrence County named Alan Short its new football coach. Short, a quarterback for the Bulldogs from 1996 to 2000, replaces Joey Cecil, who resigned in January.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "High school notebook: Tiny Jackson City heating up on the court."