15th Region Rankings and Regional Tournament Preview

[DearToday]

Region Tournament:
Here’s a breakdown of each region tournament game along with a ranking of the remaining teams. All games will be held at Appalachian Wireless Arena. Good luck and injury free ball to each team!

I’m going to break this down into the games that are left. The 15th has adapted into a super regional format so a lot of games have been played so far. Things started Feb 29th. Paintsville beat East Ridge and Prestonsburg beat Phelps in play in games. From there, Lawrence County beat Paintsville, Besty Lane beat Belfry, Magoffin County beat Prestonsburg, and Johnson Central beat Shelby Valley. So what we have left is the final 8. 

Game 1: Pikeville (21-4) vs. Lawrence County (24-7) March 6th 6:30
Series in 2023-24: First Meeting
Series Overall (since 1997/98): Pikeville leads the series 11-3. 

RPI wise, this is the 1 and 2 seed in the 15th in a first round game. Pikeville has been rolling and only lost one game this calendar year and that was in the All ‘A’ to Evangel Christian. Pikeville is led by Charlie Fitzer with 14.4 a game and Eli Johnson with 11.0 per game. Pikeville is the region favorite and has been playing the best ball so it’s hard for me to see a situation where they lose. Lawrence will get the first crack at Pikeville to knock them off. They were upset in the 58th district championship by Floyd Central, but won their play-in game with Paintsville after. The Bulldogs are led on the year by Andrew Bloomfield (15.9), Hayden Perry (13.1), Blake Marcum (11.4), and Gunnar Woods (10.8). Lawrence will have to play much better than they did in their district championship game if they plan to knock off the mighty Panthers, but I don’t think that happens. I’ll take Pikeville by 10+. 

Game 2: Martin County (21-9) vs. Betsy Lane (17-15) March 6th 7:45
Series in 2023-24: Martin County 94 Betsy Lane 72 on Jan 18th
Series Overall (since 1997/98): Martin County leads the series 4-1. 

The Cardinals have won 11 of their last 12. They’re one of the hotter teams in the 15th region right now. Luke Hale has been Mr. Consistent for them as he puts up 23.8 per game and Brayden McKenzie puts up 14.8 per game. Martin County beat Paintsville by 19 and Magoffin County by 10 to win the district. Now they’ll face Betsy Lane. They knocked off Betsy Lane by 22 on Jan 18th where Brayden McKenzie led the way with 28 and Luke Hale added 22. Betsy Lane has their work cut out for them. They were defeated in the first round of district by Floyd Central by 6, but with the way the new Super Region is set up in the 15th they were given life by being able to play back into the region. They knocked off Belfry by 38 and now are in the final 8. They’re led on the year by Andrew Kidd (16.4) and Carter Parsons (13.4). I believe Martin County gets the win again by 15+. 

Game 3: Floyd Central (16-13) vs. Magoffin County (18-13) March 7th 6:30
Series in 2023-24: Magoffin County 61 Floyd Central 47 on Jan 22nd.
Series Overall (since 1997/98): Magoffin leads the series 7-4

Floyd Central has won 9 of their last 11. The Jaguars won the 58th district championship with a 6 point win over Betsy Lane, then a 14 point win over Lawrence County. Thanks to the new super regional, the 58th district has 3 teams in the final 8. The Jaguars are led on the year by Braden Moore (20.0) and Ronnie Sammons (18.1). They’ve been playing really good ball as of late, but unfortunately they will be playing Magoffin County. Magoffin knocked the Jaguars off Jan. 22nd by 14. Aden Barnett led the way with 29. That’s right on par with his season average. He is currently putting up 29 a game shooting 56.6%. Magoffin won their first game of the district over JC in OT, but then dropped their game with Martin in the district finals by 10. They beat Prestonsburg by 23 to earn their way to Appalachian Wireless. I think this will be one of the better first round games of the region and could go either way. Give me Magoffin in a tight one. 

Game 4: Pike County Central (20-8) vs. Johnson Central (14-13) March 7th 7:45
Series in 2023-24: First Meeting
Series Overall (since 1997/98): Johnson Central leads the series 23-9

The Hawks may pose the best threat to knock off Pikeville. They are currently winners of 14 of their last 15. PCC won the district championship by 68 over Belfry. Jaylan Rigdon led the way with 34, Jaden Stewart with 22, and Jacob Slone with 20. Rigdon and Stewart have led the Hawks on scoring this year with 25.8 and 21.4 points per game respectfully. PCC played Pikeville within 5 earlier in the year. I think they’ll end up making their way back for a rematch. To get there they’re going to have to knock off the Johnson Central Golden Eagles. JC has made it this far by losing their first district game by 6 to Magoffin in OT, but then beating Shelby Valley on the road by 3. JC is very up and down though as they have been 6-6 their last 12 games. JC is led on the year in scoring by Austin Slone (26.3) and Brayden Shepherd (16.9). I think Pike County Central wins this one in dominating fashion. 

Predictions:
Semi Final 1: March 9th 7:00. Pikeville vs. Martin County
Semi Final 2: March 9th 8:45. Magoffin County vs. Pike County Central
Finals: March 11th 7:00
 

Rankings:

1. Pikeville (21-4)
 

2. Pike County Central (20-8)
 

3. Floyd Central (16-13)
 

4. Lawrence County (24-7)
 

5. Martin County (21-9)
 

6. Magoffin County  (18-13)
 

7. Betsy Lane (17-15)
 

8. Johnson Central (14-13)

[mcpapa]

I’ll be following Pike Central through the tourney.  The Rigdons are from my neck of the woods, and Jaylan’s grandpa recently posted on another social media site that the young man recently notched his 3,000th career point. 

[DearToday]

The super regional doing what it was intended to do. Three of the final four teams are from the 57th district. 
 

Pikeville vs Martin County. 
Magoffin vs Johnson Central.