Sweet 16 Gets Going at Rupp

The National City Boys Sweet Sixteen state basketball tournament got underway on Wednesday afternoon with the champions of region 5, the Adair County Indians, taking on the champions of region 12, the Lincoln County Patriots. It had been 12 years since Adair had been to the state tournament, and even longer for Lincoln, 27. But the Indians are the ones who are sticking around for another day, as they win their first state tournament game since 1955, 51-41.

The Indians controlled the tempo from the outset, holding the high-scoring Patriots to just 8 points in the first quarter. Thanks to a disciplined ball-control offense, taking as much as 35-50 seconds off the clock each possession, and ice-cold shooting by Lincoln, Adair led 14-8 after 1 quarter.

It was pretty much the same in quarters two and three, as Adair gradually extended their lead to as much as 11, their lead after three quarters of play, 33-22.

Lincoln did make things interesting for a little while with a 7-0 run in the first 2 minutes of the 4th quarter to trim Adair's margin to 4 at 33-29. But that was as close as they would get, as the Indians settled down and ran their offense, taking valuable seconds off on each trip down the floor. The Patriots also went cold again from the field, scoring only 1 points over the next 3+ minutes, as Adair used a little run of their own, 7-1, to extend their lead back to 9, 39-30. They cruised home from there.

"We run our offense good, had a great early start, and that allowed us to control the tempo early, enabling us to control the game," coach Mark Fudge said afterward. In holding Lincoln County to just 41 points, coach Fudge added, "Our kids did a real good job playing man and we rotated to help real well, forcing Lincoln to shoot over us, as our height advantage did come into play, which was part of our game plan on both ends of the floor, to use that."

Chris Lewis led Adair with 12 points. Followed by Kalen Kimberland with 11, and leading scorer Darren Ballou had 10.

Lincoln was led in scoring by Ryan Young with 17 points, which led all scorers, and was the only player in double figures for the Patriots.

Adair's next opponent in the quarterfinals is a date with the state's number one team, the Scott County Cardinals, the champions of region 11, who crushed the champions of region 8, the Oldham County Colonels, 59-47. This game was not as close as the final indicates, as the Cards lead 51-23 after three quarters. Oldham was able to make things respectable as their reserves outscored Scott's 24-8 in the final frame, setting the final score.

This game was tied at 4 with 6:15 to play in the opening stanza, as both teams were getting after it hard, as these 2 teams are old rivals, battling for region supremacy when Scott County was a member of the 8th region before state realignment moved them to the 11th.

But when the Cardinals scored on their next possession off an offensive putback, one of many they had in the game, it started a 32-10 run that went into period two allowing Scott to grab their biggest lead of the half, 36-14. It was only 18-9 after the first quarter, but Scott Co. scored the first 11 points of quarter number 2 to go up 29-9, and it was downhill from there for the Colonels.

Commenting after the game, coach Billy Hicks said, "We got off to a great start with good ball pressure and good offensive rebounding that lead to a lot of our points. And Jordan Lee also had a great first half that gave us a lift." He also added, "We played real hard, but didn't shoot well. But we won and are moving on."

Coach Hicks did tip his hat to the effort of Oldham County. "They played tough and battled to the end, the sign of a very good coached ball club."

Tyler Portwood was the only double figure scorer for the Cardinals, getting 10 points off the bench. Bud Mackey and Matt Walls, Scott's leading scorers, each had 9 points. The Scott County starters did not play in the final period.

Oldham was led in scoring by Billy Payne, their only double figure scorer for the game. Payne recorded a double/double, getting 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Adair County and Scott County will meet on Friday, March 22 at 12:00 p.m.

Posted by: Marc Hall

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