13th Region Week 12 Rankings and District Preview

Now with district play here, we will take a look at each district tournament and give a short run down of the top 10 and how their weeks went, and we take time to highlight the best player from the 13th region that you’ve not heard of at the end. 

49th District:
The district host here is North Laurel. Things open up here Monday between Red Bird and OBI for the 5-6 play in game. OBI had two pretty convincing wins over Red Bird in the season so I would expect pretty much the same in this case. The winner of this game will play North Laurel on Wednesday at 6:00 which is a great prize to win for winning your play in game. North Laurel has handled both squads pretty handedly in the regular season. In the 2-3 game we have Clay County and Jackson County. Clay beat Jackson by 9 and by 5 in the regular season, so they look to knock off the Generals for a third time and punch their ticket to the region tournament after being denied the trip last year. The championship will be played Friday night at 7:00. North Laurel is your heavy favorite to win the 49th district. 

50th District:
Top to bottom, this should be a highly competitive district and a great environment as it is held at South Laurel. The first games will be held on Tuesday and will kick off with 1 seed Corbin taking on 4 seed Williamsburg. The two regular season games saw Corbin win by 9 and then by 25. Winning the one seed in the district was huge after seeing the up swing that Coach Eric Swords has Whitley County on. The 2-3 seed game will be 2 seed South Laurel taking on 3 seed Whitley County. South had looked to wrap up the 1 seed after taking down Corbin earlier only for Whitley to come in and knock off the Cardinals by one in OT. A few weeks later saw South Laurel avenge that loss by a dominating 37 point win over the Colonels. This game should be entertaining from start to finish. I predict another Corbin South Laurel final that should be as entertaining as they always are. 

51st District:
The 51st district will be held by Pineville and will host a different game each day. The first game will be Tuesday which will be the 1 seed Barbourville taking on the 4 seed Lynn Camp. The 51st district only played each team once so when these two played the final result was a win by Barbourville by 19. Barbourville is the favorite in the district, but Lynn Camp may have the best player in the district in Micah Engle. Engle averages 30.4 a game on 56% shooting, but to pull off the upset the Lynn Camp star will need some help. The next game will be held Wednesday where we will see 2 seed and tournament host Pineville take on 3 seed Knox Central. The game earlier in the year saw Pineville beat Knox Central by 16 which was the mountain lions first win over Knox in years. Knox is a proud program that has previously played in four straight region championships, can the Panthers get the playoff magic rolling? I predict a Barbourville vs Knox district final. 

52nd District:
The 52nd will be another electric district tournament if it’s anything like the past. let's take a quick look at last year. Everyone had penciled in a Harlan County and Harlan final, but Bell County game in and pulled off the upset win in OT which denied Harlan County a trip to the region. We’ve seen year after year anything can happen in this district. Your first game will be the 1 seed Harlan County against the 4 seed and tournament host Middlesboro on Tuesday night. Harlan County had two wins by a combined 59 points so they should be in the clear here. The next game is what could be the trap game as 2 seed Harlan takes on 3 seed Bell County. The first game these two teams played Harlan won by 31, but the next one Harlan won by 3 points. Brad Sizemore coached teams often find a way to get the ugly wins in the postseason. Harlan is the heavy favorite but has gone cold recently. Nevertheless, I predict an all Harlan County district final. 

13th Region Week 12 Top 10 Review:

1. North Laurel (18-10): Jaguars went 2-0 on the week with a 41 point win over Knox Central then they flexed their muscles as they went to Corbin and beat them by 21. North is on a four game win streak and is 9-1 in their last ten games.  

2. Harlan County (25-5): The Black Bears went 2-0 on the week with a 7 point win against Whitley and a 5 point road win over Barbourville. Harlan County is on a 5 game win streak and is 8-2 in their last 10 games. 

 3. South Laurel (21-8): The Cardinals went 1-1 on the week with a 9 point loss at Madison Central but then a 9 point win over LCA. South Laurel is on a one game win streak and is 7-3 in their last 10 games. 

4. Corbin (20-6): Corbin went 2-1 on the week with wins at Bell County, at home against Lynn Camp, and then took a loss to North Laurel at home. The Redhounds enter district play on a one loss streak but 9-1 in their last ten games. 

 5. Harlan (23-6): The Green Dragons spent this last week resting and getting healthy before attempting to regain the spark they had at the beginning of the season. Harlan is 6-4 in their last ten games. 

 6. Whitley County (20-9): Whitley went 1-1 on the week with a win over Apostolic Christian and a close loss on the road losing to Harlan County by 7. The Colonels will enter district play on a one game loss streak but also going 7-3 in their last ten games. 

7. Barbourville (16-10): The Tigers went 1-1 on the week with a 16 point win over Berea and a 5 point loss at home against Harlan County. Barbourville will enter the tournament on a one loss streak but also going 7-3 in their last ten games. 

8. Bell County (15-15): Bell went 2-1 on the week with an 11 point loss at home against Corbin, then back to back wins over Jackson County and Apostolic Christian. The Bobcats enter district play on a two game win streak and have gone 8-2 in their last ten games. 

9. Clay County (14-14): Clay went 2-0 on the week with a 24 point win over Middlesboro and a 45 point win over Knox Central. The Tigers enter district play with a 2 game win streak and have gone 5-5 in their last 10 games. 

10. Jackson County (17-12): Jackson County went 1-1 on the week with a 14 point loss on the road at Bell County but a 10 point win over Pineville at home. The Generals enter district play on a one game win streak and have gone 4-6 in their last ten games. 

Best of the rest:

11. Pineville (17-9)

12. Williamsburg (15-14)

13. Lynn Camp (5-23)
I know this may be the last time we talk about Lynn Camp this season. So I wanted to touch base on Micah Engle. He’s probably the best player from the 13th region that you’ve not heard of and could possibly be the best player in the region not named Reed Sheppard. On the year he’s averaging 30.4 of his teams 64.3 a game. He’s also shooting 56% from the field as he does this, while shooting 40% from three and averaging 6.6 boards a game. In his last three losses he’s had 28, 28, and 54. He had 52 in a loss against Williamsburg, 45 in a loss against Pineville, 43 in a loss against Whitley, and 44 in a win over Bluegrass United. Although the team hasn’t seen a ton of success, Micah is an outstanding player and deserves some sort of recognition. 

14. Knox Central (4-25)

15. Middlesboro (9-21)

16. OBI  (10-20)

17. Red Bird (5-17)