No. 1 and No. 2 beaten on same night. Get to know the teams that knocked them off.
Something happened on the way to Saturday’s televised showdown between undefeated No. 1 Lexington Catholic and undefeated No. 2 North Laurel.
Their Friday night opponents came to spoil the party and did so in spectacular fashion.
In the opener of the four-game showcase at Lexington Catholic on Friday and Saturday, Paul Laurence Dunbar rallied from a 10-point third quarter deficit to stun the No. 1 Knights 65-57 behind a double-double performance — 23 points, 19 rebounds — from junior forward Tim Hall and a 25-point effort from sophomore guard Nick Spalding.
Then in Friday’s nightcap, Ashland Blazer, a team who itself went undefeated last season all the way to the canceled Sweet 16, buried No. 2 North Laurel under a barrage of 15 three pointers in a mesmerizing 86-66 win that saw junior guard Ethan Sellars hit seven threes on his way to a game-high 37 points.
“I just didn’t think we executed well enough to win,” LexCath Coach Brandon Salsman said. “We made costly turnovers and took bad shots in quick possessions. That’s not what you can do and win ball games like that.”
The same rang true for North Laurel, which committed 16 turnovers to Ashland Blazer’s six and had trouble adjusting to how the Tomcats broke down their full-court press.
“I thought that the back end of their press was susceptible to corner threes,” said Ashland Coach Jason Mays. “We found a way to win. Shots were falling, and that’s what we do. We shoot it.”
Those results might seem like upsets to some, but to followers of high school basketball who know Ashland and Dunbar to be in the conversation of “best teams in the state,” it should come as no surprise at all.
Ashland: Not perfect, but maybe better
Mays knew his Tomcats weren’t likely to have another run like last year’s 33-0 glory road to the Sweet 16. In fact, he tried to make sure of it.
“We wanted to have a schedule where we knew we were gonna take some bumps and bruises as this team developed and sort of got connected and learned one another, again,” Mays said. “I wanted to play the best teams we could possibly play. … That prepares us to win our region and if we make it to the state tournament, we’re not going to be scared of anybody.”
Without the season being abbreviated by COVID-19, it might have been even more harrowing. As it was minus traditional holiday tournaments, Ashland (13-4) began with a road loss to Highlands. The end of January brought a blowout loss at Bowling Green; then late last month, back-to-back losses to northern Kentucky powers Covington Catholic and Simon Kenton.
“Coach Mays gave us a tough schedule, but he knew that’s what we needed,” said Sellars, who had a career night against North Laurel. “He knew that we had to come through adversity and give ourselves a challenge to really be ready for the postseason.”
Sellars had been averaging just more than 12 points per game coming into Friday, but ahead of the game Mays mentioned the 6-foot guard as someone coming along and key to their success.
“That’s our X-factor,” Mays said, noting that opponents and observers “sleep on” Sellars and instead focus on how Cole Villers and Colin Porter fill up stat sheets with 22.2 and 16.7 points, respectively.
Villers, a 6-2 junior, had a breakout sophomore year and helped preserve their undefeated season with an incredible three-quarter court shot to beat West Carter at the buzzer.
“We’re witnessing Cole Villers become one of the all-time greats in Ashland Tomcat history, right now,” Mays said. “He’s got a good rhythm and is shooting about 45 percent from three.”
Villers went 3-of-6 from outside the arc and scored 19 points against North Laurel (19-1).
Porter, just a sophomore, has a 7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and “he just doesn’t back down from anybody,” Mays said.
Porter had 14 points and 12 assists against North Laurel going up against its heralded sophomore Reed Sheppard.
Ashland appeared to be a well-oiled machine Friday against the Jaguars, but their players and coach said the process has been halting with a couple of COVID-19 stoppages along the way interrupting the flow.
“We’ve had a rough season just because we can’t ever get on a roll,” Porter said. “We play one game and then we’re off three games with COVID, but it’s just really fun to be able to compete (in games like this weekend).”
With the postseason beginning in two weeks, Mays will find out how well his plan worked for the back-to-back 16th Region champs.
“I think teams that are left standing at the end of March are going to be teams that handled adversity,” Mays said. “The best teams let adversity roll off them and focus on controlling what they can control.”
Dunbar: Greatness and grit
“Anybody who doesn’t think Dunbar is one the five best teams in the state is wrong,” LexCath Coach Salsman said. “They’ve got size, they’ve got guards, they’ve got shooters, and, now that they don’t have COVID, anymore, they’ve had everybody together. They’re getting better and better so we’re gonna have to step up to the challenge.”
A week ago, Dunbar almost nipped LexCath, but fell 69-67 as a late lead slipped away. On Friday, despite falling behind by 10 points in the third quarter, they outmuscled and outhustled the Knights down the stretch and held on.
“Defense. I think it was defense,” said sophomore point guard Nick Spalding, who also nailed three three-pointers along the way, including one that put Dunbar in the lead for good, 56-53, with 2:51 left in the game. Spalding scored 13 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter.
“We turned up our intensity,” said Tim Hall, Dunbar’s 6-5 forward, who averages nearly a double-double and got 19 rebounds against LexCath’s taller lineup.
“We’re basically picking up where we left off last year, just getting it together, finally jelling together and playing to the best of our ability,” Hall said.
Hall had six points in Dunbar’s 10-0 run to end the third quarter and help tie the game after LexCath had made its own 10-0 run to start the period.
The Knights’ Ben Johnson looked like he was aiming to put the game away coming out of the break with eight of those 10 points in the rally in front of 100 raucous students who came to the game in place of LexCath parents who opted to give up their seats for this district rivalry game.
Dunbar Coach Scott Chalk said having a “regular-sounding game for the first time all year” was pretty nice, actually.”
“I think we enjoyed that as much as they did, in a way,” Chalk said.
Though Johnson scored 32, Dunbar held down the rest of the Knights lineup and kept them well below their 72 points per game average.
“You hold them down to that number of points, that’s the whole thing to win,” Chalk said. “They didn’t get a lot off the press, and they didn’t get a chance to score cheap baskets much.”
While Lexington Catholic (18-1) has been ranked among the top teams in the state all year, the Knights are by no means a lock for the 11th Region title. In addition to Dunbar (10-4), No. 7 Frederick Douglass and any number of teams loom as a threat.
Dunbar’s losses this season have come to Bryan Station in a game they played without Hall due to isolation protocol, Madison Central on the road (always a tough place to get a W), LexCath by two points and Trinity by three.
And Dunbar has shown grit in tough games. They rallied from down 16 in the fourth quarter against Frederick Douglass to win by seven, an astounding turnaround that shows just how dangerous the Bulldogs can be.
So, yes, the Bulldogs believe they can compete with anyone. “We’re on the rise,” Spalding said.
On Saturday at Lexington Catholic, Dunbar was scheduled to take on Ashland Blazer, and Lexington Catholic was to face North Laurel.
“Going into the district, you want to know that you can beat these teams,” said Chalk, who led Dunbar to the 2016 Sweet 16 title. “That’s good for us.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 12:45 PM.
