article 11th Region Notebook for the week of December 21st

Team of the Week: Madison Southern – It’s hard to pick a team of the week when almost everyone only played one game since the rankings were last posted. So I went with Madison Southern. They are on a 4 game win streak including a surprising win over Cordia. I’ve seen it said that Coach Rhodes wasn’t at the game due to the birth of a child. Regardless, Madison Southern beat a team full of kids with D1 offers, so they are the team of the week.

Player of the Week: Darius Williams, Dunbar – Had 49 points combined in wins over Fairdale and LCA. Darius can score from about anywhere. Once his 3 point percentage goes up and he starts shooting free throws at his usual rate, his PPG will continue to rise.

Team Rankings (Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1. Dunbar (1) – Only played Fairdale in the opening game of the KOB since the last rankings and handled them with ease. We’ll know much more about Dunbar over the next 3 days at the King of the Bluegrass.

2. Henry Clay (2) – Throttled Western Hills Friday night. Should be the heavy favorites to win the Berea Invitational this week.

3. Scott County (3) – Trounced Scott on Friday night at home. Someone forgot to tell these Cardinals that young teams are supposed to struggle early in the year. They lead the region in wins and are the likely favorites to win the Woodford Invitational.

4. Lafayette (4) – Beat Brunswick, Ohio by a point before losing in the LeBron James Classic. According to the schedule, these Generals are off this week.

5. Bryan Station (5) – They have been off for 10 days so they should be well rested for their game against Louisville Eastern to open the Woodford County Invitational. DeAndre Dishman cannot get back soon enough.

6. Lexington Catholic (6) – Crushed DeSales before losing to Manual by 4 and Male by 12. Hard to put them at 6 as they sit with a 3-5 record but they have played a good schedule. Need to see some results in their Holiday Classic or the Knights will see a precipitous drop in the rankings. I think now is the time to buy stock in Lex Cath basketball.

7. Lexington Christian (4) – A 9 point loss at Danville and a 3 point win over Fleming County to complete the week. These Eagles still lack a signature win over a good team. The schedule says they are off for 2 weeks. Hopefully not.

8. Madison Southern (NR) – Winners of 4 in a row, they have a little momentum heading into this week’s Berea Invitational.

9. Frankfort (9) – 2 close losses last week but no one behind them in the rankings is making a great case to jump them (other than Madison Southern). So the Panthers sit at #9 again this week. They are also at the Berea Invitational this week.

10. Madison Central (8) – Losers of 2 in a row to close the week, the Indians are just barely hanging on to the last spot in the top 10. They are off until the 27th, when they face a formidable team from Paris.

Can confirm that Hollingsworth from Dunbar took an unofficial visit to Xavier last week for the game against Cincy.