The Best Seat In The House

A item in a Tuesday post mentioned former Casey County coach Jack Stanford’s induction into the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches’ Court of Honor on Friday at the Boys Sweet Sixteen. Stanford, who also coached at Breathitt County, will represent the 14th Region.

But we now know that the 12th Region’s representative in this year’s Court of Honor class is Roscoe Denney, the former Danville coach who is currently seated on the South Laurel bench for its game against Hazard.

Denney, now an assistant to Steve Wright at South Laurel, was the last coach to lead Danville to the state tournament when the Admirals won the regional title in 1990. He also led a Breathitt team to the state tourney during his tenure there, and he has also served as head coach at Garrard County — yes, he was the coach there for less than two weeks one summer, though folks in Lancaster would like to forget that — McCreary Central and Ballard Memorial.

Congratulations to Denney and Stanford for this honor.

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The over-the-air and online broadcast of today’s Lincoln County-Shelby County game on WPBK-FM (102.9) begins with pregame coverage at 1 p.m.

The good news for Lincoln County is that the Patriots don’t have to tip off the Boys Sweet Sixteen today, as they did last year when they lost to Adair County in the first game of the tournament. That’s never a good thing for a team that hasn’t been there before, because teams don’t get to practice at Rupp Arena, but the teams that play later games at least have a little time to get the feel of the building before their game.

The conventional wisdom says this is one of the better draws for the 12th Region in a few years (although last year’s draw didn’t look too bad, either). Some are saying that Lincoln has a halfway decent chance of making it through to Saturday morning’s semifinals if it can get past Shelby County in its first-round game Thursday afternoon. (The Lincoln-Shelby winner plays South Laurel or Hazard on Friday night.)

I say don’t count those chickens just yet. Yes, Lincoln can beat Shelby. I believe this is a better Lincoln team in many ways than last year, and I believe it will be better for having had last year’s state tourney experience. But Shelby can beat Lincoln just as easily. The Rockets have size that Lincoln doesn’t and an impressive leader in Coty Minnis. To me, this looks like a 50-50 game, and the quarterfinal game that Lincoln or Shelby plays probably will be, too. So yes, the Patriots could win two games in this tournament. Or they could win one. Or they could win none. None of those outcomes would surprise me.

For another opinion, we turn to the final Durden Ratings for the 16 state tournament teams, which will appear in today’s Advocate. Lincoln is ranked eighth among them with a rating of 93.1, while Shelby is 13th but not far behind in points at 90.5. Hazard is 10th (91.7), and South Laurel is 15th (88.6). Less than six rating points separate the teams ranked seventh through 16th. The top three teams are Lexington Catholic (112.4), Mason County (109.4) and Holmes (103.3); Bardstown (87. is last.

Today’s Advocate includes the preview of Thursday’s game. There will be postgame coverage within minutes of the final whistle on amnews.com, and that coverage will be updated a couple of times Thursday evening. There will be full coverage in the Advocate on Friday, including a quarterfinal preview if Lincoln advances.

I shouldn’t put it on the record, but for the record here’s my pick to win it all: Holmes.

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For the history buffs among you, here’s a copy-and-paste from last year with the history of Advocate area teams in the Boys Sweet Sixteen. Of the last nine local teams that have qualified for the Boys Sweet Sixteen, only one has made it past the first round. That was Harrodsburg, which reached the quarterfinal in 1996.

Here’s how all of the local teams fared that have reached the state tourney (note that the first state tournament was held in 1916, the KHSAA took it over in 1918 and the present 16-region numbering system began in 1932):

• 1916 (8-team tourney): Danville lost to Somerset 57-8.
• 1917 (8-team tourney): Centre Academy lost to Monticello 29-13; Danville lost to Owensboro 17-8.
• 1918: Danville lost to Lexington 23-14.
• 1919: Danville lost to Somerset 30-24.
• 1926: Danville def. Henderson 24-19, def. Winchester 42-19, def. Ashland Blazer 19-16 (OT), lost to St. Xavier 26-13 (championship).
• 1928: Danville lost to Ashland Blazer 16-8.
• 1930: Moreland lost to Carr Creek 19-15.
• 1938: Burgin (11th Region) lost to Bellevue 32-19; Highland def. Corydon 37-16, lost to Maysville 25-23.
• 1939: Danville lost to Olmstead 31-26.
• 1945: Danville def. Dawson Springs 54-30, def. Providence 40-38, lost to Male 50-20, lost to Harlan 43-39 (third-place game).
• 1951: Danville def. Caverna 47-42, lost to Whitesburg 71-44.
• 1954: Danville lost to Ashland Blazer 74-67.
• 1960: Harrodsburg (11th Region) lost to Bell County 66-54.
• 1968: Danville lost to Lee County 76-58.
• 1973: Danville def. Bowling Green 71-70, lost to Owensboro 77-56.
• 1975: Lincoln County def. Fairview 65-52, lost to Christian County 83-59.
• 1980: Lincoln County lost to Union County 85-69.
• 1990: Danville lost to Clay County 80-59.
• 1993: Casey County lost to Harlan 75-70.
• 1996: Harrodsburg def. Boone County 57-50, lost to Lexington Catholic 67-44.
• 1998: Boyle County lost to Fleming County 57-49.
• 1999: Boyle County lost to Muhlenberg North 47-43.
• 2000: Mercer County lost to Scott County 95-47.
• 2006: Boyle County lost to Pleasure Ridge Park 67-43.
• 2007: Lincoln County lost to Adair County 51-41.

Here’s some potentially valuable info for following Lincoln County in the Boys Sweet Sixteen, whether you’re making the trip to Rupp Arena or backing the Patriots from back home when they play Shelby County on Thursday:

• Find rosters and statistics for Lincoln, Shelby and all the other Sweet Sixteen teams at this KHSAA Web page. There are also links to live statistics, which will be updated constantly during the game, to statistics and other info that will be updated as the tourney progresses, brackets and streaming audio.
• Tickets are $11 (upper level) and $16 (lower level), except for those seats in Lincoln’s official cheering section, which are presumably already gone. Tickets can be purchased at the Rupp Arena box office (859-233-3535) or through Ticketmaster.
• Lincoln’s cheering section for its first-round game will be in lower sections 23 and 24 and upper section 224. Those are the end-zone sections closest to the visitors’ bench, which is the bench the Patriots will use as the visiting team in their game. (Here’s a link to a Rupp Arena seating chart.) All tickets are good for both the Lincoln-Shelby game and the South Laurel-Hazard game that precedes it. If the Patriots win, cheering section tickets for their next game will be sold after the game at the arena; listen for announcements late in the game.
• If you’re following the game at home or at work, you can listen to Lincoln’s broadcast on radio at WPBK-FM (102.9) or online at wpbkfm.com, or you can listen to the Sweet Sixteen network online feed from this page. The network broadcast of all tourney games can be heard over the air at WVLK-FM (101.5). You can also tap into live and constantly updated stats from each game at this page.

Lincoln County guard Ryan Young has been voted the 12th Region boys player of the year by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches members in the region. Young and regional coach of the year Rob Jones of McCreary Central will be honored Friday afternoon at the Boys Sweet Sixteen at halftime of the second quarterfinal.

Young is the first player from the Advocate’s coverage area to win this award since Joe White of Mercer County in 2003.

The full list of boys players of the year is here, and the list of coaches of the year is here.

In addition, former Casey County coach Jack Stanford has been selected to the KABC Court of Honor. Stanford will also be recognized Friday afternoon at the state tournament, between the first and second quarterfinals.

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On the subject of Young, he has postponed any serious consideration of where he’ll play collegiate sports until after Lincoln’s season concludes, and the Patriots’ Sweet Sixteen trip has delayed that even further.

Young said after Lincoln won the 12th Region Tournament that he plans to sit down with his family “a couple of weeks after the season” to consider his options.

Twenty local basketball players have been voted by area coaches to The Advocate-Messenger All-Area basketball teams. The girls team is in today’s edition of the Advocate, and the boys team will be announced Sunday.

The team covers eight high schools in Boyle, Casey, Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties.

The final six spots in the Boys Sweet Sixteen brackets were finally filled Wednesday night in regional title games pushed back by last weekend’s winter storm. The list of winners includes Shelby County, which rallied to defeat Gallatin County 49-48 for the 8th Region championship. Shelby will play 12th Region champion Lincoln County in the first round of the state tourney at 1:30 p.m. March 20.

Gallatin, bidding for its first regional title since 1959, was up by two points and at the free-throw line with 12 seconds left. But after a miss, Shelby converted a three-point play with 6 seconds left to turn the tables. The Rockets will return to Rupp Arena for the second time in three years.

Here are the full first-round pairings for the Boys Sweet Sixteen, in bracket order: Wednesday, March 19 — University Heights (2nd Region) vs. Lexington Catholic (11th), Central (6th) vs. Owensboro (3rd), Jeffersontown (7th) vs. Paintsville (15th), Holmes (9th) vs. Bardstown (5th); Thursday, March 20 — South Laurel (13th) vs. Hazard (14th), Shelby County (8th) vs. Lincoln County (12th), Paducah Tilghman (1st) vs. Greenwood (4th), Mason County (10th) vs. Elliott County (16th).

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Rockcastle County put up a good fight in its first-round game in the Girls Sweet Sixteen, but the Lady Rockets came up short in a 60-56 loss to Ohio County, and they remain winless in five trips to the state tourney.

Rockcastle led 34-24 early in the second quarter, then gave up 19 straight points in just 4:02 to fall behind 43-34. There were 11 lead changes in all and six in the third quarter before Ohio crept out to a four-point lead. The Lady Rockets’ last chance came when Angie Lawrence was fouled on a 3-point miss with 3 seconds left. She missed the first two free throws, and Rockcastle couldn’t rebound when she missed the third intentionally.

Sarah Rowe had 20 points in her final game for Rockcastle, and Sara Hammond had 18 rebounds. Rockcastle forced 23 turnovers but committed 29.

Notes and thoughts from day 4 of the boys 12th Region Tournament at Pulaski County:

• Lincoln County defeated West Jessamine 51-36 for the championship.
• This is Lincoln’s fourth regional title and its second in as many years. The Patriots are the first 12th Region boys team to repeat as champion since Boyle County in 1998 and ‘99. They will play Gallatin County or Shelby County on March 20 in the first round of the Boys Sweet Sixteen in Lexington. (Gallatin and Shelby play tonight to decide the 8th Region champion.)
• Lincoln’s defense was the catalyst in its win over Boyle in last year’s regional final, and that was the case again in this game, as the Patriots gave West Jessamine precious few good looks in the second half. By quarters, the Colts were 4-for-9, 3-for-10, 2-for-8 and 4-for-8 from the field. That’s 13-for-35 overall, compared to 19-for-40 for Lincoln, which was 15-for-26 in the final three periods and 11-for-17 in the second half.
• The Patriots hit six of 19 3-point shots, the last of which was a dagger delivered by Daniel Ralston off a sweet pass from Ethan Spurlin that gave them a 43-31 lead with 3:47 to play. “That 3 was a monster,” Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson said.
• Lincoln fell behind 7-0 in the first 3:03 — “We knew this would be a battle,” Jackson said — but recovered with seven straight points. It was 19-all 32 seconds into the second half before West Jessamine entered a period of 7:06 without a field goal while the Patriots went on a 15-3 run that included consecutive 3-pointers by Noah Keeton.
• West Jessamine is now 0-2 in regional title games, adding this result to a loss to Henry Clay in 2003 in the 11th Region.
• The boys all-tournament team: Gulian Blanton, West Jessamine; John Coomer, Somerset; Darius Jackson, East Jessamine; Trevor Jones, Southwestern; Noah Keeton, Lincoln County; Chris Muse, Pulaski County; Jared Polson, West Jessamine; Cory Price, Somerset; Jonathan Rehner, West Jessamine; Ethan Spurlin, Lincoln County; Dustin Wells, Wayne County; Shawn Whitis, Pulaski County; Christian Williams, Boyle County; Ryan Young, Lincoln County.
• The Other 15: The 8th Region finalists advanced by knocking out two Oldham County schools. Shelby County beat South Oldham 71-62; Gallatin County beat North Oldham 72-56. … There were no big surprises in Monday’s semifinals or finals. The best game might well have been Paintsville’s 79-70, double-overtime win over Shelby Valley in a 15th Region semifinal. … In the 11th Region, Lexington Catholic manhandled Bryan Station 79-63 to earn its first state berth since 2002. Jordan Smart hit eight of 11 3-point shots for the Knights. Bryan Station was denied its first title since 1989, and the Sweet Sixteen crowd was denied a chance to see Defenders star Shelvin Mack, who scored only six points. … Central, still celebrating its Class AAA football championship, won its first regional basketball title since 1978 by beating Fairdale in the 6th Region. … South Laurel needed overtime to beat Corbin 59-49 for the 13th title. … Other state berths went to Paducah Tilghman (1st Region), Owensboro (3rd), Greenwood (4th), Bardstown (5th) and Hazard (14th). Six other regions will crown their champions tonight to fill out the bracket.

Casey County coach Randy Salyers has been voted the 12th Region girls coach of the year by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches members in the region. Salyers and regional player of the year Sarah Rowe of Rockcastle County will be honored Friday at the Girls Sweet Sixteen.

This is Salyers’ second regional coach of the year award. He also won in 1997.

The full list of girls coaches of the year is here, and the list of players of the year is here. The boys honorees will be announced early next week.

Notes and thoughts from day 3 of the boys 12th Region Tournament at Pulaski County:

• Lincoln County defeated Pulaski County 62-47; West Jessamine defeated Somerset 66-51. Lincoln plays West Jessamine for the championship tonight.
• Lincoln looked to be taking the express lane to the championship game when it pulled out to a 16-2 lead by hitting its first six shots, including three 3-pointers. But as one coach said during the game, “It’s hard to blow somebody out in the semifinals.” And so Pulaski recovered to pull within seven points by the end of the first quarter, and the Maroons took a 23-22 lead on Caleb Rowe’s 3-pointer with 4:00 left in the first half. The Patriots reopened a 10-point lead in the third quarter and were never threatened down the stretch.
• Ethan Spurlin led Lincoln with 19 points, just ahead of Ryan Young with 18 and Noah Keeton with 17. Shawn Whitis had 13 points and Chris Muse had 12 for Pulaski.
• This was the second straight year that Lincoln has elminated Pulaski. The Patriots won a first-round game in last year’s regional 70-49.
• Somerset had to feel good about its semifinal matchup after having beaten West Jessamine by nine during the regular season, but the Colts were in control of the rematch for all but a few minutes of the first quarter. Somerset’s last lead was at 9-8, and West Jessamine led 20-14 by the end of the period.
  The shooting statistics for both teams were interesting in this game. West Jessamine made the most of its 33 field-goal attempts, hitting 21 of them to shoot 64 percent. The Colts were 5-for-12 from 3-point range and 21-for-33 at the free-throw line. Somerset took more than twice as many shots from behind the 3-point line as from in front of it, going 12-for-25 on 3-point attempts and just 4-for-12 on 2-point attempts to shoot 43 percent overall.
• Gulian Blanton led five West Jessamine players in double figures, followed by Daniel Rehner (12), Jared Polson (11), Mike Lee (10) and Nick Jeffrey (10). Somerset was led by reserve Aaron Dockery with 12 points, followed by John Coomer with 11 and Cory Price with 10.
• Pulaski’s gym, by far the largest in the region, was nearly full for the first game. The semifinal crowd was probably the largest at a regional session in several years. They were packed in at Lincoln for the most recent South Laurel-vs.-North Laurel title game in 2005, but the crowd at Pulaski on Monday couldn’t have fit in Lincoln’s gym.
• Tonight’s title game is a rematch of a Dec. 15 game in Nicholasville, which Lincoln won 55-49. Last year, Lincoln’s closest shave in the regional came in a 40-39 semifinal win over West Jessamine in which Zach Fain, who has since graduated, scored 30 of the Colts’ 39 points and missed a last shot that could have given them the win.
• Lincoln will be trying to win its second straight regional title and its fourth overall. The Patriots’ previous titles came in 1975, 1980 and 2007. With a win, Lincoln would become the first team to win consecutive 12th Region titles since Boyle County in 1998 and 1999. West Jessamine will be trying to win the first regional title for a Jessamine County school since Jessamine County was split into two schools in the 1990s. Before the split, Jessamine County won one 11th Region championship in 1990. West Jessamine has appeared in one regional final, losing to Henry Clay in the title game of the 2003 11th Region Tournament.
• The Other 15: Adair County, the team that defeated Lincoln in the first round of last year’s Boys Sweet Sixteen and was favored to return to Rupp Arena from the 5th Region, was eliminated with a 63-58 semifinal loss to Central Hardin. … Pleasure Ridge Park, the favorite in the 6th Region, also fell victim to the upset bug, losing 62-59 to Central in a semifinal. … South Laurel and Corbin defeated Lynn Camp and Knox Central to advance to the 13th Region title game, which will be their 11th meeting in three seasons since South Laurel joined the 13th Region and 50th District. The Cardinals have won all but one of the previous 10 games. … The 8th Region winner, which plays the 12th Region champion in the first round of the boys state tourney, won’t be determined until Wednesday. Tonight’s semifinals match Shelby County vs. South Oldham and Gallatin County vs. North Oldham. … The bracket for the Girls Sweet Sixteen was filled with nine snow-delayed title games Monday night. In the 3rd Region, Ohio County defeated Muhlenberg North 63-56 to advance to a Wednesday night first-round game against 12th Region winner Rockcastle County. The Lady Rockets wouldn’t have minded playing Muhlenberg North again, because they beat the Lady Stars by 29 points in a holiday tournament. … Henry Clay completed an improbable run through the girls 11th Region with its second upset in as many nights, beating Lexington Catholic 47-43 for the title one day after knocking off top-ranked Paul Dunbar.
• First-round matchups for the Girls Sweet Sixteen, in bracket order: Wednesday, DuPont Manual (7th Region) vs. South Laurel (13th), 1 p.m.; Rowan County (16th) vs. Breathitt County (14th), 2:30 p.m.; Marshall County (1st) vs. Butler (6th), 7:30 p.m.; Rockcastle County (12th) vs. Ohio County (3rd), 9 p.m. Thursday, Conner (9th) vs. Henderson County (2nd), 1 p.m.; Johnson Central (15th) vs. Elizabethtown (5th), 2:30 p.m.; Simon Kenton (8th) vs. Franklin-Simpson (4th), 7:30 p.m.; Henry Clay (11th) vs. Montgomery County (10th), 9 p.m.

Notes and thoughts from day 4 of the girls 12th Region Tournament at Lincoln County:

• Rockcastle County defeated Casey County 57-48 for the 12th Region championship.
• This is Rockcastle’s fifth regional title, its fourth in the last five years and its second in three years since being moved to the 13th Region. Rockcastle plays Ohio County or Muhlenberg North in the first round of the Girls Sweet Sixteen on Wednesday. (Those two schools play Monday for the 3rd Region championship.)
• Rockcastle does so many things well, but this win was above all else a product of its defense, which took Casey County completely out of its game. The Lady Rebels couldn’t get the 3-point looks they need, nor could they free up Megan Pittman on the inside. Rockcastle was both quicker and more physical on this day, and that made all the difference.
• The most telling part of this game might well have come in the final minutes of the first half. Rockcastle outscored Casey 10-0 over the final 2:32 of the second period and didn’t allow a field goal in the final 3:40. And just when it looked as if the Lady Rockets might hold for the last shot, Mary Saylor unloaded a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left that made it 24-17. When the teams headed off the floor at halftime, Rockcastle’s players were practically skipping toward their locker room, while the Casey players walked slowly toward their locker room with stunned looks on their faces.
• Saylor scored 31 points, going 7-for-9 from the field and 16-for-18 at the free-throw line. All of her field goals came in the first half; all of her free-throw attempts in the second. She also had four rebounds and four assists. Several folks who have seen Rockcastle play far more than I have said this might have been the best game of her life.
• Saylor became the fourth different player to lead Rockcastle in scoring in five postseason games, joining Sarah Rowe (27 points vs. Somerset, 24 vs. Danville), Angie Lawrence (24 vs. Casey in the 47th District final) and Jackie Alexander (17 vs. Mercer County). The last two girls mentioned are reserves, and Alexendar didn’t even score Sunday.
• Saylor had three points when Rockcastle beat Casey 66-57 in the 47th District final on Feb. 28. The Lady Rockets’ top two scorers that night, Lawrence and Ashley Robinson, combined for 38 points in that game but only two on Sunday.
• Sara Hammond turned her ankle and left the floor with a severe limp with 3:44 left in the first quarter, but she got a quick tape job and returned with 6:44 left in the second quarter and went on to grab a game-high nine rebounds. “All I could think about was this game. I just wanted my team to win,” she said.
• Kayla McFarland led Casey with 14 points, followed by Pittman and Tara Weddle with 10 each. Pittman had eight rebounds.
• Casey finished with 17 turnovers, 14 of which came in the first half.
• Casey is now 1-2 in regional finals. Prior to this game, the Lady Rebels lost to Boyle County in 1997 and defeated Wayne County for their only regional title in 2000.
• The Lady Rebels ended their season without a championship, yet this was the winningest basketball season in school history — girls or boys, by total wins (27) or by winning percentage (.870) — and surely one of the best seasons ever for any area team. Coach Randy Salyers said after the game that his team will learn from this experience and be ready to make another run next year in what will again be a fiercely competitive region.
• Salyers also made a point of praising the Casey fan base that grew exponentially along with the team’s win total. The Lady Rebels’ fans far outnumbered the Rockcastle partisans Sunday, and good crowds have cheered them on at home and away for several weeks. “We’re very appreciative of the support our fans have showed us,” Salyers said. He also thanked Casey’s school administration for its backing.
• The boys 12th Region Tournament resumes tonight with the semifinals at Pulaski County, with Lincoln County playing Pulaski at 6:30 p.m. and Somerset playing West Jessamine at about 8:30 p.m. The first game is a rematch of a Jan. 15 game at Lincoln, which the Patriots won 75-56 behind 25 points from Noah Keeton and 18 from Ryan Young. This was one of the last (perhaps even the last) of the four games Ethan Spurlin missed due to mononucleosis. Lincoln shot 47 percent from the field and outrebound a bigger Pulaski team 31-26. Somerset and West Jessamine played that same night in Somerset, with the Briar Jumpers winning 54-45. Click on the links to read the semifinal previews from the Advocate and from the (Somerset) Commonwealth-Journal.
• The girls all-tournament team: Rachel Bristow, Wayne County; Kendra Brown, Lincoln County; Nicole Coffman, Casey County; Loran Crowell, Mercer County; Devin Fothergill, Southwestern; Sara Hammond, Rockcastle County; Lauren Hatter, Casey County; Tasha Milby, Danville; Megan Pittman, Casey County; Sarah Rowe, Rockcastle County; Mary Saylor, Rockcastle County; Hayley Spivey, Mercer County; Jessica Upchurch, Lincoln County; Ashley Willoughby, East Jessamine.
• The Other 15: Five teams joined the Girls Sweet Sixteen field Sunday, joining two that had already gotten their tickets punched. In addition to Rockcastle, Sunday’s winners were Butler (6th Region), duPont Manual (7th), South Laurel (13th) and Breathitt County (14th). Marshall County (1st) and Franklin-Simpson (4th) were already in. … Nine regional champions will be decided Monday, none of which will be won by Paul Dunbar, the team that ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in the state. Dunbar lost 53-42 to Henry Clay in an 11th Region semifinal Sunday. … On the boys side, Lexington Catholic smoked Scott County 80-54 to advance to the 11th Region finals against Bryan Station, which beat Paul Dunbar.