No. 1 vs. No. 2. One of state’s best teams goes home Friday night a game short of the Sweet Sixteen
For arguably the two best teams in the state, it all comes down to Friday night.
No. 1 Scott County will face 42nd District rival and No. 2 Henry Clay for the 11th Region title Friday after both won their respective semifinals Wednesday in Eastern Kentucky’s Paul S. McBrayer Arena. But neither were easy.
“No. 1, No. 2, right?,” said Henry Clay Coach Daniel Brown after his team’s 67-57 win over Woodford County. “I don’t know what you’d want. Will you find a better game in the state tournament than you’re going to get Friday night? I’m not sure. We’re excited and just blessed to be there and we’ll see if we can do it one more time.”
Henry Clay won the last game between the two, 78-71, for the district title a week ago. Scott County won both regular-season matchups, one of them in a 21-point blowout. Now, the two will go for round four and a trip to the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen is on the line.
“It’s going to be a hard-fought game. We’re just going to come in ready,” said Henry Clay guard, Marques Warrick, who had 19 points to lead the Blue Devils on Wednesday.
No. 1 Scott County 56, No. 10 Frankfort 51
The evening appeared ripe for an upset.
But No. 1 Scott County (31-3) overcame a five-point halftime deficit to thwart No. 10 Frankfort on Wednesday night in the first of two 11th Region Tournament semifinals.
“We didn’t come ready to play (in the first half),” Scott County senior guard Bryce Long said. “Our defense wasn’t there. Our intensity wasn’t there. I think they out-hustled us. The second half we knew we needed to come out better.”
And Long helped lead the way. His layup at 4:17 left in the third quarter tied the game at 37 and forced a Frankfort timeout. Moments later, another Long layup gave the Cardinals their first lead since the opening moments of the game. He followed that up with a three-pointer for a 42-38 lead and a seven-point rally to himself.
Frankfort (28-6) did not let Scott County get away, however, taking the lead back in the fourth quarter and going up 45-42 on free throws by Juanya Frank.
The last tie came at 49 when Frankfort’s Jevon Bush’s jumper answered a Lorenzo Williams shot seconds earlier.
From there, Long had another mini-rally with a fast-break layup to put Scott County up two and a pair of free throws that made the margin 53-49 with 1:19 left.
Frankfort had to go into foul mode after missing three straight attempts near the basket down two and another John Tillman try underneath when they got down four. From there, Diablo Stewart and Michael Moreno sealed the outcome at the free throw line.
Freshman Jackson Twombly led the Panthers with 15 points, 11 of them in the first half. Frank added 12. Frankfort looked like the better team for much of the game and handled Scott County’s defensive pressure fairly easily in the first half, stepping through and driving and dishing for easy layups. Meanwhile, Scott County couldn’t get on track; shooting 28 percent from the field and committing nine turnovers.
“They came right out of the gate and just played harder and tougher,” Scott County coach Billy Hicks said of Frankfort’s first half. “We’re very fortunate to come out of here with a win. Tonight, I think Frankfort was a little bit better than our guys thought they were. Not me. I knew they had a good team. They play so hard.”
Long led three players in double-figure scoring for the Cardinals with 14 points. Williams had 11 and Glenn Covington added 10. Moreno, in his fourth game back from an injury that cost him half the season, scored nine points and led the Cards with eight rebounds.
No. 2 Henry Clay 67, Woodford County 57
It took a while for No. 2 Henry Clay to shake off a determined Woodford County team Wednesday, especially after spotting the Yellowjackets the first eight points of the game thanks to four consecutive missed shots in the first three minutes.
But the Blue Devils (28-5) quickly got their bearings, making their next six shots, including three three-pointers in four possessions for Marques Warrick that gave the Blue Devils a lead by the end of the first quarter they would never relinquish.
“We just followed the game plan and we all played hard, honestly,” Warrick said. “Balanced scoring attack, we rebounded and defended and that was the key to the win.”
In addition to Warrick’s 19 points and eight rebounds, the Blue Devils also got 18 points and nine boards out of Harris Hawkins and 17 points and a team-high three assists from Keaston Brown.
“I thought Warrick really did a good job of getting us going when we were down,” Coach Brown said. “Harris Hawkins was consistent and Keaston came in, playing through foul trouble and kind of locked down in there late. It was a total team effort.”
Woodford County (21-11) twice cut the lead to three points with under three minutes to play in the third quarter, thanks to a three-pointer and a jumper by Anthony Tabor. But the Blue Devils answered with a 7-0 run in the last minute and a half that included a Hawkins three-pointer and Warrick layup. Though Woodford County’s Corey George closed the period with a buzzer beating three-pointer of his own to make it 48-41 at the final intermission, some of the Yellowjackets’ momentum was lost. They got no closer than five the rest of the way. George led Woodford with 20 points. Tabor finished with 14.
“We just made a few more shots and a few more plays down the stretch,” Coach Brown said. “We did a good job getting the ball where we wanted to get it, and we just had to make plays.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 9:39 PM.
