12th Region District Tournament Review and Regional Tournament Preview

The field of 8 is now set and the raucous 12th will soon crown a champion. Let's first look back at the district tournaments that produced the 8 teams competing for the regional title.

45th District

As we expected all year, this one was really fun and really competitive. In the opening rounds Garrard County dispatched Danville behind Jayden Noe's 33 points and Boyle County rolled past the Kentucky School for the Deaf with Brennen Taylor scoring 30 and most of the varsity squad sitting. 

The semifinals saw a balanced Danville Christian effort (Lual Ayiei 16 points & 13 rebounds, Geu Ateny 15 points & 13 rebounds, Emmanuel Dut 13 points, and Titus Boyd 9 points & 6 rebounds) defeat the hosting Golden Lions of Garrard County while Boyle County proved they were there to take care of business and beat Lincoln County 60 to 46 with Demauriah Brown scoring 20 and Montavin Quisenberry scoring 17. 

In the championship tilt Boyle County surged past Danville Christian, significantly limiting that balanced scoring attack and preventing DCA from going wild on the boards, holding them to just 23.

46th District

The 46th opened with the 4/5 game between West Jessamine and Burgin which saw the Colts advance behind the 21 points of Ethan Little and 20 points of Ben Hershey. 

The first semifinal saw history get made as Trinity Christian punched their first ever ticket to a regional tournament with a 62 to 60 overtime win over East Jessamine. Bryce Thompson scored 26 and Alan Coffman had 19.

Trevor Ellis scored 22 and Jackson Perry had 16 as Mercer County started their postseason with a semifinal win over the West Jessamine Colts.

In the title game Ellis had 14 and Perry had 12 as the Mercer cruised past Trinity Christian by 22 points.

47th District

Ben Godby and Indred Whitaker started the Somerset postseason run by scoring 18 and 17 points, respectively, to soar past Casey County in the opening semifinal game. In the second semifinal game Carson Fraley scored 18 to push Pulaski County past Rockcastle County in overtime.

However Fraley wasn't enough to power the Maroons to a district title as Godby and Whitaker each scored 20. The Jumpers walked out with a 55 to 52 win over Pulaski. 

48th District

Antajuan Dumphord scored 21 for the Wayne County Cardinals as four of his fellow teammates scored double digits to blow out Somerset Christian School in the opening semifinal game. In the second semifinal Southwestern defeated McCreary Central 68 to 56 as Zachary Hutchinson and Connor Hudson both scored 22.

In the championship game the Cardinals took home the title with a win over Southwestern 56 to 41. Kendall Phillips scored 20 and Antajuan Dumphord had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Regional Tournament

The Regional Tournament opens Wednesday at Pulaski County as Mercer County takes on Southwestern. Southwestern has been a recent upstart and that success includes a win on February 22nd 54 to 40 over Mercer County behind Connor Hudson's 26 points. 

The second game Wednesday night should be another entertaining matchup as Boyle County plays the hosting Maroons of Pulaski County. Pulaski won this matchup on February 17th by 4 points as Ethan Idlewine had 16, Zak Anderson scored 15, and Will Blankenship chipped in 13. Carson Fraley's night was limited and he only contributed 2 points. For the Rebels Demauriah Brown was held to just 4 points but Montavin Quisenberry and Seneca Driver found success, scoring 20 and 16 points respectively.

The other two quarterfinal games are set for Thursday with the night opening with Somerset facing Trinity Christian. These two teams have not played each other this year and this game is poised to be a blowout if Somerset continues to be on the uptick.

The quarterfinals close out with what is the most tantalizing opening round matchup as the Wayne County Cardinals take on the Danville Christian Warriors. DCA defeated Wayne 56 to 37 on February 20th behind Titus Boyd's 21 points and a double-double performance from Geu Ateny. That is only one of two losses for Wayne County over their last 15 games. The likelihood is that DCA cannot repeat that blowout result, at least it'll be the hope of every neutral observer that this is a thriller.

We will be back next week to recap the first round and preview the two semifinal games that are set to be played on the 11th.