Regional review, Tuesday 3/13

Notes and thoughts from Day 4 of the boys 12th Region Tournament:

• Lincoln County defeated Boyle County 64-51 for the championship. Lincoln (24-9) will play 5th Region champion Adair County (23-9) at noon Wednesday, March 21 in the first round of the Boys Sweet Sixteen at Lexington.
• This is the third regional title for Lincoln and the fourth for a Lincoln County school. The Patriots also won in 1975 and 1980, and Highland won in 1938. Lincoln is 1-2 in the Sweet Sixteen. The 1975 Patriots defeated Fairview 65-52 in the first round and lost to Christian County 83-59 in the quarterfinals, and the 1980 team lost to Union County 85-69 in a first-round game.
• No player had a greater impact on Lincoln’s title game win than point guard Ryan Young, who penetrated and scored with regularity in the second half. Young scored 16 of his 23 points in the third and fourth quarters, going 4-for-5 from the field and 8-for-9 at the foul line in the last two periods.
• Senior Braxton Miller 17 points and he and Trent Calhoun had six rebounds each in their game at Lincoln. Fellow senior Chase Overstreet had only six points and five rebounds, but he was the Patriots’ leading scorer and arguably their most valuable player in their first two wins in the tourney.
• It took Lincoln only a few minutes Tuesday night to abandon its man-to-man defense for a 2-3 zone, and that made all the difference in keeping Boyle’s Spencer Perrin from lighting up the scoreboard as he did in the first three meetings between the teams (28, 40 and 25 points) and in the Rebels’ semifinal win over Southwestern, when he had 32 points and 25 rebounds. Perrin had 21 points on 8-for-17 shooting, and he had only six points in the second half. Once the defensive switch was made, he usually found three defenders (and sometimes four) around him whenever he got the ball in the lane, and just getting it to him was hard enough. Still, Boyle wouldn’t have gotten to the regional final or had a chance to win it without him.
• Boyle went 8-for-11 from the field in the first quarter and outshot Lincoln in the first half, but the Patriots had the better percentage by game’s end. Lincoln shot 49 percent (14-for-31 in the first half, 9-for-16 in the second half); Boyle shot 44 percent (12-for-20 in the first half, 8-for-25 in the second).
• Another key statistic in this game was the turnover count, 15 for Boyle and only four for Lincoln, which didn’t have its first giveaway until late in the second quarter.
• Lincoln outscored Boyle 22-11 in the fourth quarter and put the game away with a 16-3 run after the Rebels took their last lead at 43-42 early in the fourth. Still, Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson said he wasn’t convinced the Patriots had the win in the bag until 19 seconds remained. The Lincoln fans didn’t wait that long to start their celebration, but their cheers rose to new heights then when Jackson rose to his feet and urged them on.
• Lincoln girls coach Don Story, whose team lost a regional title game on the same floor a year earlier, was in the locker room to congratulate Jackson after the nets were cut. Jackson said it was Story, who was Lincoln’s athletic director in 2003, and former principal Ty Howard who brought him to the school. “It was a great career move for me and my family. This is a very special place with special people,” he said.
• One of the other noteworthy elements of Tuesday’s game was the heat. The combination of a standing-room-only crowd, a 75-degree day and the typically warm temperature at Lincoln home games — Jackson likes it hot, as we’ve detailed in this space before, and the heaters were running until the place started filling up — made for a sweaty setting. Imagine sitting on the front porch on a late evening in August with stifling heat and humidity and no breeze — and 3,500 folks around you. The first fans were in their seats nearly 90 minutes before game time, and the bleachers were full a good 20 minutes before tipoff. But while it was a little uncomfortable, it was a wonderful atmosphere for high school hoops.
• The all-tournament team: Jordan Aumiller, Boyle County; Casey Dalton, Southwestern; Corey Dixon, Pulaski County; Jonathan Edwards, Southwestern; Zack Fain, West Jessamine; Braxton Miller, Lincoln County; Scott Moody, Somerset; Chase Overstreet, Lincoln County; Spencer Perrin, Boyle County; Daniel Rehner, West Jessamine; Dustin Wells, Wayne County; Matt Whitley, East Jessamine; Christian Williams, Boyle county; Ryan Young, Lincoln County.
• The Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches announced its 16 girls regional players and coaches of the year. We learned last week that McCreary Central’s Lindsey Waters had won the 12th Region player award, and Rockcastle County’s Chrysti Noble is the regional coach of the year.
• The Other 15 (noteworthy scores from the rest of the state): Adair put the clamps on John Hardin to win the boys 5th Region final 54-42. The Indians, who are in the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1995, have won 11 straight games since a Jan. 30 loss to Taylor County. … Corbin, playing on its home floor, gave South Laurel a battle in the 13th before the Cardinals prevailed 66-64. … Oldham County sprung a mild upset with a 63-57 win over Simon Kenton in the 8th. … Tiny June Buchanan, a school operated by Alice Lloyd College with an enrollment of about 80, avenged a 14th Region All “A” Classic loss to Hazard by beating the Bulldogs 51-46 to win its region. June Buchanan and 16th Region champ Elliott County are the only first-timers in the Sweet Sixteen field.
• First-round pairings for the Boys Sweet Sixteen, in bracket order: Wednesday, March 21 — Lincoln County (12th Region) vs. Adair County (5th), Oldham County (8th) vs. Scott County (11th), Fairdale (6th) vs. South Laurel (13th), Paducah Tilghman (1st) vs. Holmes (9th); Thursday, March 22 — Ballard (7th) vs. Owensboro (3rd), Christian County (2nd) vs. George Rogers Clark (10th), Shelby Valley (15th) vs. Elliott County (16th), Warren Central (4th) vs. June Buchanan (14th).