Final per update thread.

Spencer County missed three at buzzer to go to overtime. Time to start mentioning junior Sam Conley as in the running for 8th region player of the year. Powell with 30 and Conley with 26. Spencer County looked a little tired tonight. Lots of unforced turnovers. I don't know how much gas they had in tank after battling South Oldham the night before last. Starters playing alot of minutes. One night rest and on to Oldham County.

Could have gone either way. Put these two on the court against each other every day the next ten days and the two will split 5-5.

 

North Oldham 15 17 16 21 - 69

Spencer County 13 18 15 20 - 66

 

Biggest lead of the game was 6. Neither team would allow the other to get on an extended run throughout. Effort was tournament-caliber; execution was predictable given that it was just North's third game (second with Justin Powell and Rico Carr-Cole playing) and Spencer's fourth game. At times, the fact it was "early-season", coupled with the intensity of playing one of the better teams in the region, often led to less-than-desirable execution on the floor.

 

But the effort was sterling. All else will come.

 

Tremendous matchup of two of the region's best. Though North's Justin Powell (30 points, 5 rebounds, boatload of assists) and Spencer's Sam Conley (28 points, 5 rebounds) both had moments they'd like to forget, both showed athleticism, smarts, and talent that make both legitimate 8th Region Player of the Year candidates.

 

Powell started the game like a freight train, hitting 3 of his first 5 shots (including 2 of 2 threes) and a pair of FTs for 10 points early in the first quarter. The Mustangs' talented point guard would probably like to forget going 1 for 10 from late in the first through all of the second and third quarters - but he wanted the ball in the fourth, coach David Levitch gave it to him, and he hit four of six shots in the fourth, along with 6 of 8 free throws to propel the Mustangs to the win.

 

Likewise, Conley - who shot the ball well all night (unofficially, 11 of 20) - would probably like to forget going just 1 for 4 at the line in the first half; three rare misses from the Spencer star that would have come in handy late in the game. But Spencer's leading scorer also came up big in crunch time, scoring half his points in the final frame.

 

Spencer played seven in the ballgame... besides Conley, Lucas Hornback had 18 and Gage Mabry had 10. Mabry came up big early, hitting two threes in the first half on wide-open threes from the corner. North finally started shutting down the corner, but Hornback found openings - the 6'3" junior hit five threes in the contest.

 

Overall, Spencer hit twelve threes, per the PSN unofficial stats.

 

North got big games from its two interior players, the Higdon brothers. Senior Tyler and freshman Ian both had double figure scoring nights, with Tyler getting 14 points and 9 rebounds, and Ian hitting 4 of 5 shots and 2 of 2 FTs for 10 points.

 

At the half, North had led for most of the first two quarters, only to see Spencer rally to take a 31-30 lead with 30 seconds left in the half. The Mustangs came down and got a two from Luke Berry just before intermission to make it 32-31, North - it was the only points North had in the first half from someone not named Powell or Higdon (Justin Powell, Tyler Higdon, and Ian Higdon each had 10 at the break).

 

Some notes:

 

- Both teams wanted to run, run, run, and both converted numerous baskets in transition.

- Though a lot of fouls were called, only one player -North's Ian Higdon - fouled out. One other Mustang - Tyler Higdon - ended the game with four fouls. Four Bears finished the game with four fouls, though - Whitlock, Mabry, Jaggers, and Conley.

- North now leads the all-time series with Spencer County, 10-3. Amazingly, the last four games between the two schools have all been decided by three points.

 

GREAT GAME! This was an incredibly exciting game for December.

 

Congrats to North Oldham and good luck to both teams the rest of the way!

 

CM

Spencer County missed three at buzzer to go to overtime. Time to start mentioning junior Sam Conley as in the running for 8th region player of the year. Powell with 30 and Conley with 26. Spencer County looked a little tired tonight. Lots of unforced turnovers. I don't know how much gas they had in tank after battling South Oldham the night before last. Starters playing alot of minutes. One night rest and on to Oldham County.

 

Hard to talk about a player being POY coming off a losing effort.

Good breakdown. Thanks

Hard to talk about a player being POY coming off a losing effort.

 

I have to agree with Cardsrule on this one. Conley may not win the award - there's an awful lot of legit competition in Morrison, Powell, McKnight, Niece, etc. - but Conley is a definite contender for POY. Not many - if any - of the candidates are going to wind up on an undefeated team; all will take losses, most likely. Playing as well as Conley did in a loss tonight is a feather in his cap, IMO. He played a fantastic game tonight. His biggest handicap may be his age - over the decades, the voters have shown a definite preference towards giving the award to seniors over underclassmen if the qualifications are deemed to be pretty "equal". That would tend to give players like Powell, McKnight, and Morrison a leg up on guys like Conley and Niece.

 

CM

Hard to talk about a player being POY coming off a losing effort.

 

Really. I disagree. Two elite players going head to head. One a senior ranked in the 70's on ESPN signed with Auburn the other just a junior. That was a battle between two of the top teams in 8th on N. Olhams home floor. Don't really think it matters who won. Conley was every bit as good as Powell. Two great players.

Spencer is 0 for the Oldhams so far this week with a road trip to Oldham County coming up on Saturday. The South Oldham - North Oldham- Oldham County district is a tough one!

Spencer is 0 for the Oldhams so far this week with a road trip to Oldham County coming up on Saturday. The South Oldham - North Oldham- Oldham County district is a tough one!

 

I think Spencer County is not too upset. They have taken two top 20 teams in the state to the wire and had a chance to win. Yes that district is tough. No doubt!

OC may not be as talented as Spencer, but they will probably be longer and deeper. Spencer will need to rest up and prepare for another close one Saturday.

OC may not be as talented as Spencer, but they will probably be longer and deeper. Spencer will need to rest up and prepare for another close one Saturday.

 

I think they have some size that could hurt Spencer County.

ColonelMike, no scoring mentioned for Whitlock of Spencer. Was he in foul trouble? Thought he might put up some points against North Oldham's guards.

ColonelMike, no scoring mentioned for Whitlock of Spencer. Was he in foul trouble? Thought he might put up some points against North Oldham's guards.

 

He had a tough night. Only went 1-5 shooting for three points. Picked up fourth foul in third quarter. Picked up two fouls helping out on Powell and then a bogus charge call. Had a couple of uncharacteristic unforced turnovers. The fact is his legs are dead. When you play both ends of the court with his intensity it is very difficult to maintain a certain level playing those two quality teams back to back. I just hope Spencer County can give Oldham a good effort tomorrow. It will be tough.

ColonelMike, no scoring mentioned for Whitlock of Spencer. Was he in foul trouble? Thought he might put up some points against North Oldham's guards.

 

Just saw stats. While he didn't have a very good game he did have 7 assist. Mabrey and Whitlock had off nights shooting so kind of surprised that game went to the wire.

Sounds like Coach Burns may need to employ some "load management" with his top players. Pretty early in the season for dead legs. That said, Spencer did seem to "front load" its schedule. If they get through the December grind they'll have an easier back half.

 

North Oldham played a district game v. Trimble County the night before, but I guess they had an easy time with them and didn't wear anyone out.