Oldham County 75 Walton-Verona 47

Oldham County raced out to a 21-0 lead to start the game and there was no looking back.

Jack Watson's follow shot late in the first on a missed three finally got W-V on the board.

The Colonels led, 26-8, after one period, and 50-16 at the half.

As fast as the Bearcats like to play, Oldham likes to play faster. The Colonels' size advantage at every position, along with their high-paced pressure defense, was simply something WV wasn't quite prepared to face.

Coy Zerhusen played 15 players, subbing early and often in the second half; by the fourth period there were no starters to be found on the court for Oldham. Eleven Colonels scored, led by Deaton Oak's 12. Sam Campbell, Xander Wagner-Rose, and Tyler Slone all added 11 points. Nick Carter and Logan Hudgins came off the bench to tally 8 and 6 points, respectively.

Oldham shot over 50% from the floor (23 of 45) through three periods, including 8 of 15 beyond the arc and 9 of 11 at the line. All of those numbers went down some in the fourth as players 11-15 were on the floor for Oldham.

Oldham did a lot of its damage on the glass, outrebounding WV (unofficially), 35-20. It paid off in spades on the offensive end; Wagner-Rose alone had three 2+1 opportunities in the first half, and scored 9 points on those three occasions.

Walton-Verona got solid games from Ryan Schultz and Brant Smithers, who both scored 15 points. Schultz was particularly impressive in penetrating the Oldham County defense for some high-percentage interior shots.

Cam Christy and Carter Krohman, two of Walton's top scorers coming into the game, never really were able to get going. Christy didn't score until the fourth period, finishing with 6 points. Krohman finished with just 1 point.

Jack Watson scored 8 for the Bearcats before fouling out.

Walton was held to just 35% shooting, including just 3 of 14 beyond the arc for 21%.

Both teams did well at the line: Oldham was 13 of 18 for 72.2%; W-V was 13-17 for 76%.

The differences were the turnovers and rebounds. As a result of Oldham's dominance on the glass and the extra takeaways, the Colonels took 14 more shots, and made 10 more. The free throws turned out to be a wash.

Ridulously early December thoughts taken out of the game:

Oldham This team may be a much better team than foreseen in the preseason. December wins have never earned a team a title, but Oldham is certainly playing very well right now. Oldham shoots very well, has the length to post up pretty much any player on the court, and can play inside-out. They have numerous quality three-point shooters, play at a pace that very few teams can duplicate in practice, and rebound the ball with abandon. Defensively, this team reminds me some of the old Scott County teams - the almost frantic, in-your-face pressure from one endline to the other, that got teams playing out of their comfort zones. The Colonels are probably a solid 9 deep right now, but have a couple of additional players that have the potential to be logging significant minutes by the end of the year. It's difficult even to hurt Oldham with fouls at the point guard position - starting PG Steven Votaw spent much of the game last night on the bench (he finished with four fouls), but backup Grant Gibson, the younger brother of former Oldham All-Region performer Jackson Gibson, is every bit as good - he finished with 10 assists off the bench. All this said, the Colonels haven't yet played a team that has the specific strengths that can challenge / counter Oldham's strengths - another tall, athletic team that can navigate the Colonels' pressure, for example. Given Oldham's schedule, those opportunities will come. And the Colonels' defense is not a finished product. Walton-Verona got far more open looks in the half-court setting than Zerhusen was happy with, and that will have to improve. But for now, Oldham County seems to be ahead of schedule for 2019-20.

Walton-Verona I enjoyed watching this team. Yes, the Bearcats were somewhat manhandled for the second time in a week (Anderson County handled them pretty easily on Tuesday), but this team oozes potential. Mike Hester is in his first year as a head coach, he's learning how to manage his team, his scheme, and his assistants - it's all a lot different than being an assistant coach. And he seems to be doing well; I'm impressed by how quickly he's gotten the Bearcats up to this level - a team that lost practically all point production and rebounding from last year, is painfully short (especially problematic against the Oldhams of the world), and which really only has one veteran on the entire roster (Watson). Walton, despite a poor night shooting the ball against Oldham, has shooters. Smithers, Schultz, Christy, and Krohman can all fill it up, and this team should finish the year as one of the higher-scoring teams in the region. W-V defensively may have to alter its scheme a bit - the man-to-man just didn't work against Oldham County - but then again, it may simply be an issue of staying the course and getting better by the end of the year. I also liked the intangibles; I was watching the W-V players carefully when they came back to the court after halftime, trailing, 50-16. There was no look of defeat on their faces; they came back out with fire and effort, and in the third - when Oldham still had some starters on the court - the quarter finished with Oldham outscoring Walton just 17-15. Simon Kenton and Grant County are still the favorites to come out of the 32nd - but Walton-Verona may well make this a three-team race by year-end.

Oldham improves to 7-0 on the season; Walton-Verona drops to 4-4 after a second straight loss.

Good luck to both teams the rest of the way!!!

CM