‘It was one for the books.’ Boyle stuns Paintsville with massive second-half rally.
In Boyle County’s moment of glory, Luke Sheperson was whistled for a technical foul.
But that was a small price to pay for the star forward who led the Rebels to a thrilling 70-56 comeback victory over Paintsville in the opening round of the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena.
In the closing seconds of the first game of Thursday’s night session, Sheperson caught an outlet pass and blasted home a dunk, then dangled from the rim and stared into a jubilant Boyle County student section as it went crazy.
It was a fitting exclamation point to a heroic performance by Sheperson, who helped the Rebels’ football team win a state championship in December.
“We just got hype, I loved it. It was one for the books,” Sheperson said of his highlight-reel slam before quickly shifting focus forward.
“We’ve just got to keep going. I’m not too worried about the dunk right now. Our motto’s been, ‘One more game.’ That’s what we want. We want to get to the state championship and win that.”
Sheperson was key as Boyle County (22-4) charged back from a big third-quarter deficit. With the Rebels trailing 33-22, he hit a floater in the lane to begin the rally. Sheperson scored twice more down low as part of Boyle’s 16-6 run to pull within 39-38. The teams traded fast-and-furious buckets to finish the quarter and Paintsville headed into the fourth ahead by one. Early in the fourth, Sheperson scored on consecutive fast breaks to give Boyle the lead for good, 46-45.
Jager Gillis — who quarterbacked the football Rebels to their title — nailed a three-pointer to push Boyle ahead by four. Paintsville Coach Landon Slone called timeout, but the tide was irreversible. The Rebels sank 13 of 14 free throws in the final 4:27 to put the game away.
Sheperson dominated down low, scoring a game-high 25 points on 12-for-15 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds. Gillis added 19 points, five boards and four assists and hit eight straight free throws in the closing moments.
Luke Imfeld scored 17 points and was responsible for a serious momentum shift in Boyle’s favor at the end of the first quarter. Paintsville went on a 12-4 run capped by Conner Fugate’s three to go up 19-11, and had a chance at the last shot of the period. But the Tigers turned it over and Imfeld nailed a transition three at the buzzer to cut the deficit to five, much to the delight of Boyle’s student section.
“When we got that edge back — we talk about that a lot — we’ve got to keep that edge,” Boyle County Coach Dennie Webb said. “We brought that a little bit late but finally got it going. It took a while, wasn’t too sure it was going to happen, but we finally got it going.”
The Rebels gained renewed energy from that swing at the end of the first quarter. They turned up the tempo in the second, running downhill in transition and getting to the basket several possessions in a row. Sheperson finished off a fast break with a tough layup, then Gillis scored twice in transition to pull the Rebels within three.
Fugate settled Paintsville down, using nifty moves to score inside on consecutive possessions. Imfeld then used a ball-fake to shake his defender and drained a pull-up jumper on the baseline in the closing seconds of the second quarter to get Boyle County within 27-22 at halftime. The Rebels outscored the Tigers 48-29 in the second half to earn a trip to Friday’s quarterfinals.
“We’ve got to get to work as soon as we get out of here,” Webb said. “We may not sleep (tonight) and that’s fine. We can sleep next week, we’ve got spring break.”
Conner Fugate and his brother Colby Fugate scored 16 points each to lead Paintsville, which won the 15th Region championship to earn its first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2008.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 8:02 PM.
