Sweet Sixteen contender dominates, trails, then prevails to make championship game
Trinity in its first two state tournament games looked like the team to beat, but some of the Shamrocks’ apparent dominance could be attributed to the level of its competition; their opening-round and quarterfinal opponents were perhaps the second-weakest and weakest teams in the field.
No such case could be made Saturday against Campbell County, at worst the third-best team entering the tournament and a popular upset pick. The Camels almost pulled it off, too.
Trinity bolted out to a big lead, then trailed in the second half before ultimately rallying for a 42-40 win over the Camels to reach the 102nd Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen final, scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Shamrocks have played in only one state championship – 2012, when they defeated Scott County, 71-53, for their only title. They could again meet the Cardinals, the top-ranked team coming into this year’s event; the Cardinals played Warren Central in the other semifinal late Saturday night.
Camels star Reid Jolly had a shot attempt to tie the game with about two seconds left. He was unable to draw what he believed should have been a foul; Shamrocks star David Johnson was credited with a block on the play. Jamil Hardaway secured the ball and Jolly gave him a hard push to try and extend the contest with about 1.5 seconds left. An official in front of the play did not make a call, and time expired.
“You’d have to go ask the (official),” Campbell County Coach Aric Russell said of Jolly’s uncalled push. “I have no idea.”
Johnson was an all-around dynamo for Trinity, scoring 13 points, dishing five assists and grabbing seven rebounds in addition to the game-sealing rejection.
“I had my entire hand on it,” Johnson said with a grin.
Trinity led 15-5 after the first quarter and by 15 with 7:07 left to play in the second. Then the Shamrocks sputtered; Campbell County used a 15-2 run to end the period and pull within two at halftime, then took its first lead in the third quarter as Trinity’s drought continued. The Camels led by five, 29-24, with 2:05 to play in the third.
Ethan Hodge was a second-half stud for the Shamrocks: The sophomore scored all 11 of his points in the final 16 minutes, including Trinity’s first seven in the half to revive its offense.
“I thought it would be a grind-it-out game,” Trinity Coach Mike Szabo said. “We jumped out early, and sometimes that’s not necessarily a good thing.”
Trinity regained the lead for good on a pair of Kolton Rice free throws, going up 35-33 with 4:12 remaining in the game. Campbell County pulled to within one on a Jolly layup with 24 seconds left, and had a chance to tie the game after Johnson went 1-for-2 from the stripe with 15 seconds to play.
“Nothing was easy tonight, and that’s certainly a credit to Campbell County,” Szabo said. “What a great basketball team they have.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2019 at 9:06 PM.
