Rising junior does it all to lead Madisonville to first Sweet Sixteen win since 1989
Madisonville’s Kenny White scored 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had six blocks to lead the Maroons over Lincoln County, 57-49, in the 102nd Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen Thursday in Rupp Arena.
“When I attack, I feel like that gets my teammates involved, so I just came out attacking strong and we kept scoring in the paint,” White said.
BOX SCORE: Madisonville 57, Lincoln County 49
The Maroons dominated in the paint, outscoring Lincoln County 36-16 there while at the same time racking up 16 assists and 12 fast-break points.
White, a 6-5 junior swing man, and his low-post partner, 6-9 junior K’Suan Casey, looked as if they were beginning to wear Lincoln County down in the second half. But the Patriots did not go quietly after trailing by 11 early in the fourth quarter.
A Casey turnover was converted into a three-pointer by Lincoln’s Blake Smith and, moments later, another Maroons miscue put Smith at the line to cut the lead to 47-44 with 2:46 left in the game.
“We had it 47-44 and had a three (to tie),” said Lincoln County Coach Jeff Jackson. “It just didn’t go in the basket.”
Then it was White’s turn again. His layup ended Lincoln’s 5-0 run and his sixth block of the game led to a Cade Cunningham fast break that put the Maroons back up 51-44.
Cunningham later came up with a key rebound on the missed front-end of a one-and-one and got fouled himself with 56 seconds left. He made both of his free throws to put the Maroons up 53-46. The game became a free-throw contest from there with Madisonville converting five of their last eight to seal the win.
“When you get up here to the state tournament, you’ve got to expect teams to make runs,” Madisonville Coach Matt Beshear said. “I feel like we played a difficult enough schedule this season and we’ve played against all types of styles. We know that when teams try to grind that tempo down on us that we can play that way.”
In the first half, Madisonville got a thunderous dunk out of White on a fast break and began to show its power and speed inside and out on offense and defense.
“We’ve not had teams run on us and get behind us like Madisonville did tonight, and we gave them some easy baskets,” Jackson said. “Proud of our kids, but give Madisonville a tremendous amount of credit. They made plays when they had to make plays.”
Casey had 11 points and 12 rebounds for Madisonville. Lincoln County was led by Jaxon Smith’s 19 points, 12 in the first half. Riley Bodner added 11 and Blake Smith had 10.
Madisonville has made in to the state tournament 16 times out of the 2nd Region, the last in 2001. It was the Maroons’ first Sweet Sixteen victory since 1989.
This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 8:06 PM.
