13th Region Regional Tournament Preview

[DearToday]

13th Region Regional Tournament Preview. All Games will be held at the Corbin Arena.

Ranking the Remaining Teams:

1. North Laurel

2. Harlan County

3. South Laurel

4. Corbin

5. Harlan

6. Barbourville

7. Clay County

8. Pineville

 

Game 1: North Laurel (22-10) vs Harlan (24-7) March 1st 6:00
Season Series: DNP
All Time Series on KHSAA: North Laurel leads 6-2. Last win in 2020. 

Heading into the tournament North Laurel is the region favorite and also a team many said in the preseason could cut down the nets at the end of the year. Fast forward to now, after a ten loss regular season and having to battle through injuries the Jaguars aren’t necessarily the threat that many had pegged them out to be when you look at the record. However, looking past the record you still have a team capable of cutting down not only the region nets but the state nets as well. The Jaguars enter winning 11 of their last 12 with notable wins over Lincoln County, Covington Catholic, and multiple members of the 13th. The Jaguars are led by Mr. Basketball favorite Reed Sheppard who averages 22.5 and 8.4 on the year. They also get a huge bump from University of the Cumberlands commit Ryan Davidson who averages 18.1 and 5.6 and big man Gavin Chadwell who adds in 11.6 and 5.9 per game.
Now let's look at Harlan. Is this a team that peaked too early? At one point the Green Dragons were 19-2 on the year and pegged as a team that could unseat the Jags. Now, they’re a team that has finished 5-5 in their last ten and lost in the district championship to Harlan County. This is a team that is sort of jekyll and hyde. When the 3 is falling, Harlan has the capability to knock down any team any night, however when the 3 isn’t falling that’s when we see the green dragons struggle. Harlan is led by Kyler McLendon who puts up 22.7 and 3.3 a game. Jae dyn Gist also added in 14.8 with 9.3 on the boards. Will Austin scores at a clip of 12.1 and leads the team in boards with 11.4 a game. When the dragons are hitting the 3’s and running and gunning they have what it takes to knock off the region favorite. This is one of the best two matchups in the first round and should be a dandy. I believe North Laurel will advance. 

Game 2: South Laurel (23-8) vs Pineville (18-10) March 1st 7:30
Season Series: DNP
All Time Series on KHSAA: Never played

Let's start by looking at South laurel. South enters the tournament winning 9 of their last 10 and is getting after teams defensively. In these 9 wins, 6 of them the opposing team has scored less than 45 points. South had a big time win over Corbin in the district championship to win the season series with Corbin. Jeff Davis coached teams flat get after it on the defensive side of the ball. The Cardinals are led by Jordan Mabe, Eli Gover, and Parker Payne who score 14.3, 13.7, and 13.2 per game respectively.
Now let’s look at how Pineville got here. The streak is over and the mountain lions have finally made the region tournament. Pineville gave Barbourville all they could ask for before losing on a last second layup 51-53. Barbourville had won the first meeting by 21 so the evidence is there that this team has progressively improved throughout the season. They are 6-2 in their last 8 and are looking to play cinderella. Sawyer Thompson and Ashton Moser can score points in a hurry as evidenced by their averages of 22.8 and 16.3 per game. The key to Pineville’s success will be if these two can get going against South Laurel’s stingy defense. Making it to the region championship has been a big step for the young Mountain Lions, however I think their run fizzles out at the hands of South Laurel.

 

Game 3: Barbourville (18-10) vs Clay County (15-15) March 2nd 6:00
Season Series: Barbourville 1-0 70-58 Feb 7th
All Time Series on KHSAA: Clay County leads 8-4

First let’s look at the Barbourville Tigers. This is a team I had tagged earlier in the year, possibly making a little noise if KT Turner the transfer from Knox Central got eligible. Well he is eligible, however the tigers have narrowly escaped their way into the region tournament. Barbourville beat Lynn Camp by 4 and Pineville by 2 to win the district, but this was after beating both teams by 19 and 21 earlier in the year. Chalk it up to looking ahead, or the opposing teams playing well, but either way you slice it Barbourville finished district champs and now all eyes are to Clay County. The Tigers are led by Matthew Warren, KT Turner, and Travis Scott who pour in 19.4, 16.5 and 13.7 per game. Chris Taylor has done a great job at the helm and he looks for his squad to make some noise.
The Tigers of Clay County currently sit at 15-15 and after missing out on the tournament last year they are now back. They suffered a brutal loss 55-102 to region favorite North Laurel but had an impressive 65-38 win over Jackson County to make the tournament. This isn’t the Clay County of the old days when Bobby Keith and Richie Farmer were on the sidelines, but this is a young group that will battle. Hayden Harris and Landon Dezarn lead the way averaging 18.7 and 14.1 per game. Glenn Gray looks to get the magic going and pull off the first round upset over the opposing tigers.
These two teams squared off 3 weeks ago with Barbourville taking the win at home. Now at a neutral court, it will be interesting to see who takes the win. In my opinion, if there is an upset to be pulled in the first round it will come from this game. I think this game is truly a coin flip. 

 

Game 4: Harlan County (27-5) vs Corbin (21-7) March 2 7:30
Season Series: DNP
KHSAA All Time Series: Corbin leads 9-7. HC leads 3-1 in the region tournament

Let’s look at how Harlan County got here. The Black Bears are 20-2 in their last 22 games. The only losses came to Madison Central and Newport. You can make the argument HC is actually the region favorite and they are arguably playing some of the best ball of anyone in the region. They enter with a perfect 13-0 record in the region and are being led by Junior Star Trent Noah, underclassmen Maddox Huff, and senior Daniel Carmical with a ppg average of 26.6, 16.7, and 13.5. Trent Noah also leads the way on the boards with 12.8 per game. HC is my pick as the most likely to upend the Jaguars. They’re playing great ball and have the most star power to match up with NL. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Waiting on the Black Bears are the Redhounds of Corbin. Before losing 2 of their last 3, they had won 13 of their last 14. Corbin is a dangerous team that has knocked off some bigger named teams, but has lost to both of the teams from Laurel County. Corbin is led by Hayden Llewellyn who puts in 16.7 per game but there are six players who score at least 8 points per game so for the most part they are very balanced. With the height and length of Eli Pietrowski, Trey Worley, and Marc Warren they also provide long bodies that have given teams fits. The biggest thing for the redhounds, is they will have to tighten up on the defensive side of the ball.
Harlan County and Corbin has put together some instant classics in the region tournament the past few years and I suspect this one will be the same way. This is a must watch game if you’re a fan of 13th region basketball and should be the best game of the weekend. I think Harlan County will prevail.