10th Region BluegrassPreps.com Postseason Final Review & Sweet 16® Preview

10^th Region Postseason Final Review & Sweet Sixteen Preview

Only one team remains, and its who we all thought it would be. The George Rogers Clark Cardinals have taken home the 10^th Region Championship for 3 consecutive seasons. The Cardinals battled it out with Mason County in the semifinals squeaking by with just a 12-point victory. The Bracken County Polar Bears battled back down double digits in the first half against Campbell County. Somehow, Someway the historic season continued as Bracken County was able to force overtime with a last second three by Cayden Reed. Eventually the scrappiness of Bracken County was too much for the Camels to stop. Bracken County another close game to reach the finals. The Matchup in the finals was just too much to handle for this Bracken County team. Outsized in every position, the Polar Bears just couldn’t figure out how to beat this crazy talented Clark County squad. The Cardinals ended up winning the championship 80-45, and the final score pretty well portrays how this one went. The Cardinals kicked off the game on a big run and once Bracken County was able to get their feet back under them, they just kept slowly slipping further and further behind as the game went on. Bringing back so many pieces I expect this Bracken County team to certainly make another deep run in the tournament next season. In fact, I think they are probably the #2 or #3 team going into next season. The top three must include GRC, Campbell, & Bracken. Mason will obviously be in the conversation as well, but I think it will be tough for them to replace the scoring ability of Nate Mitchell and the defensive intensity of Mason Butler. They do bring back two potential stars in Terrell Henry & Khristian “KG” Walton (Transfer from Bryan Station). KG Walton came on strong on both ends of the floor during the regional tournament.

This Clark County team is the consensus number 1 team in the state and appears to have received an extremely favorable draw in the state tournament. They avoid a tough first round matchup and the next 3 best teams in the tournament appear to be on the other side of the bracket (#2 Male, #3Cov Cath, #4 if healthy Ashland. A potential round 2 matchup could allow us to see a rematch of GRC and North Laurel, which could draw quite the crowd in the Rupp arena. But first this team must beat Perry County Central, winners of the 14^th region with a record of 29-4 on the season. In Comparing resumes, it looks like the Commodores have lost to Mason Co, North Laurel, & Madison Central. All of which have been beat by the Cardinals. No games will be easy in the sweet sixteen, but you have to think that this GRC will be the clear favorite in game one.

Thanks for reading this season and I wish GRC the best of luck, as we have a serious contender from our region this season! Hopefully they can make us proud and show just how good our basketball is in the 10^th. Also, if this team does win the championship, you have to think they will be considered the best single season team to come from the 10^th… At least they will be in my book.