Final from New Castle and the 8th Region tournament round 1

Impressive effort by Grant County; Woodford survives with a second half rally and gets their first-ever win in an 8th Region tournament.

Woodford vs Oldham County in the semi-finals on Monday at 8 pm

Very fun game to watch.  For what Woodford has I was not impressed today.  I’ll take Oldham county over Woodford in the semifinals.  

All season, it appeared - or was obvious - that there were 4 teams above the rest in the 8th Region: Collins, Woodford County, Oldham County, North Oldham.  And here we are, down to the final four, and it’s those same 4 teams.  Woodford and Collins were more consistently good than the two Oldham schools, but based on the way they’ve looked last night and tonight, I don’t think anyone will be surprised if Woodford County and Collins exit the tournament Monday evening.

It all comes down to matchups.....  Collins owns a 58-50 win in Shelbyville over North Oldham late in the season in a game in which the Titans shot 23 free throws and the Mustangs shot 3..... (outscoring North, 16-3 at the stripe).

If Collins was an anaconda on Wednesday night, slowly suffocating the Owen County Rebels over four quarters, North was a rattlesnake, striking fast, early, and often.    Collins' defense is stifling, and turns turnovers into points.  But North's defense was stunningly effective against the Walton-Verona sharp-shooting offense, holding the region's highest-scoring team (about 76 ppg) to a season-low 46 points.

This tournament was Dallas Roberts' oyster last year; he owned it like no other individual player, and lifted his team to the finals, where they lost narrowly to Oldham County.   On Wednesday, his performance may have the best of all, in a first round that featured four superlative first round efforts (Roberts, Owen's Teagan Moore, Collins' Kenyon Martin, and Woodford's Jasper Johnson all had extraordinary first round games).  Can Roberts and North duplicate last year's run??    They'll have to beat one of the craftiest coaches in the region in Chris Gaither to do so.

Woodford beat Oldham by 12 very, very early in the season.   Not sure if you can take much of anything from that game.....the game was played in Versailles and was the 3rd-4th game for each team..... Oldham was on the road, breaking in a new point guard in sophomore Max Green....Woodford didn't have John McRear eligible yet and leading scorer Jasper Johnson really hadn't gotten into form yet, scoring just 9 point that night.      I think the Oldham - Woodford game will be like a completely new game this time around.

Coy Zerhusen has Oldham playing its best ball; the Colonels' performances since the regular season ended have been eye-opening, and they've largely dominated in district wins over South Oldham and North Oldham and in tonight's rout of a decent Gallatin County team.    And if they continue to get the bench contributions they had tonight....   Even more impressively, the usually quiet players in the Oldham starting lineup - Cooper Roush and Kenton Slechter - have risen up to be counted.     Both had strong nights against Gallatin County.    

Woodford will have to play better team ball if they want to advance to the finals, but the scary thing for everyone else is the sheer athleticism up-and-down the Yellowjackets' roster.   Freshman Jasper Johnson is one of the most electric players to burst onto the scene in the 8th Region in a long, long time.   Jackson Twombley and John McRear form a potent inside presence that gives the defense the ability to extend, knowing the rim is protected.   The Yellowjackets are almost fast beyond belief....   the bench is deep.    But Woodford is perhaps the youngest of the four remaining teams, and at times tonight, they looked young.   Whether Oldham can rattle that youth into mistakes will be key in the semis.

Pick two. Any two.   This semi-final round on Monday will be exciting!

As always, free live video coverage will be on www.pegasussportsky.com