‘I need the respect now, man.’ Knox Central shocks North Laurel for 13th Region title.
.jpeg "Knox Central’s boys’ basketball team celebrated its 78-63 win over North Laurel in the 13th Region championship on Saturday.")
Sophomore standout Reed Sheppard brought eyeballs from across the state into the 13th Region championship at Corbin Arena. He impressed, but the night belonged to Knox Central.
The Panthers, making their third straight appearance in the final game, went 3-for-3 with a 78-63 victory over North Laurel on Saturday, locking up a bid to the UK Healthcare Orthopaedics/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen. They’ll play Ashland Blazer, which earlier in the day fended off Rowan County for a 62-58 overtime decision in the 16th Region finals, in a first-round tip-off scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday at Rupp Arena.
Sheppard scored a game-high 38 points on 17-of-31 shooting, and stuffed the stat sheet elsewhere — seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks and three steals — but it was a Knox Central freshman, Gavin Chadwell, who took tournament MVP honors. He finished with 17 points, six boards and a block in the title bout.
“They said my name and I got excited,” said Chadwell, who’s 6-foot-4 and a rising football star for the Panthers. “I wasn’t ready for it.”
Knox Central led by six after a back-and-forth fourth quarter, and after going up by double digits in the first half held a 43-36 lead at the break. The Panthers opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run and led comfortably for the game’s remainder; they got up by 22 at one point and North Laurel got no closer than 12 points inside the final minutes.
“All year people doubted us,” said Jevonte Turner, a senior who put in 12 points and had a game-high 10 assists as well as six rebounds. “My sophomore year people doubted us and we earned our respect by winning. Last year they doubted us and we earned our respect by winning. This year? I need the respect now, man. I think need it now.”
The Panthers were 8-for-12 from long range, doubling up the Jaguars (4-for-12) from three-point distance. Senior Andrew Sizemore had 11 points and led Central’s barrage, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. Abram Brock (16 points, five rebounds) and Isaac Mills (14 points, seven rebounds) also finished in double figures for Knox Central.
“We’ve not played a complete game all year,” Knox Central Coach Tony Patterson said. “What a time to play a complete game.”
This year’s road to Rupp Arena was the bumpiest yet for the Panthers, who started 2-0 in January before COVID-19 cancellations ravaged most of their opening-month slate. They lost the next two games they played before winning all four games in February’s WYMT Classic.
Knox Central and North Laurel hadn’t met prior to Saturday, but the Panthers had lost twice to Corbin, whom the Jaguars defeated in Friday’s semifinal round. With much of the state’s attention dialed in on Sheppard — the subject of a Sports Illustrated profile published this month — and North Laurel, which had lost just twice all season and was unbeaten in region play, Central adopted an underdog mentality despite winning each of the last two tournaments.
“They did have a chip on their shoulder,” Patterson said. “They felt like they had something taken and I could sense that all year in practice. Our practices were chippy all year. We were going at each other.
“They didn’t want to leave nothing to chance tonight and they played like that.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 10:18 PM.
