Spencer comes in on a 7 game win streak having won 18 of their last 19 with the lone loss to North Hardin on February 19th. They won the 30th district and the 8th region championship by knocking off South Oldham, Walton-Verona, and Simon Kenton. 
 

Great Crossing comes in with one loss on the season and undefeated against in state teams. They won a thrilling 11th region championship on a last second buzzer beater by Vince Dawson over Lexington Catholic. 
 

These two teams haven’t played since 2022 where Great Crossing won by 11. Spencer has their work cut out for them. Can they pull off the upset bid? 

Great Crossing Warhawks (34-1, R11 Champion, Consensus State #1) | Spencer County Bears (25-9, R8 Champion)

Noteworthy Results

Great Crossing - Beat Lexington Catholic twice, including the R11 Final | Beat R9 champion Newport by 2 | Beat Covington Catholic | Beat R16 champion Ashland by 13 | Beat George Rogers Clark by 20 | Beat Manual by 8 | Beat Male by 2

Spencer County - Lost to R9 champion Newport by 13 | Beat Oldham County by 12 | Spit the season series 1-1 against Woodford County | Beat Male by 2 | Lost to Fairdale by 2

 

Player Spotlight 

Great Crossing - Malachi Moreno (16 ppg/13 rpg/66% FGs) | Vince Dawson (18.4 ppg/54% FGs)

Two future D1 guys, with Moreno rated as one of the top centers in the country. He has the potential to impact everything that happens within ten feet of the basket against a smaller Bears line-up. Dawson has developed a rep for playing at a high level in the biggest games, as evidenced by his 20 ppg average in the games listed above and the game winning three to bury LexCath in the 11th Region final. They're all big games now.

Spencer County - Luke Erhardt (20 ppg/110 3s) | Camden Cox (15.3 ppg/100 3s) | Keaton Baird (13 ppg/6 rpg/59% FGs)

Erhardt and Cox form a fearsome perimeter shooting duo. They're the only pair of teammates in the state with over 100 three point makes each. Baird is a 6’5” athlete who's dangerous in transition.

 

Great Crossing should win this game easily. 
By the way, is this the first Sweet 16 for both these schools?

I think Great Crossing wins but think this game will be much closer than the experts think. Spencer County is good, can shoot it and playing with confidence. I also think Great Crossing may have a little let down from the crazy finish they had with Lexington Catholic in region final. Great Crossing by 5

23 hours ago, The Professor said:

Great Crossing should win this game easily. 
By the way, is this the first Sweet 16 for both these schools?

It is the first trip for both.

I think Great Crossing's size will be too much for Spencer County, but I do hope the Bears put up a good performance.

My goodness tipoff is in 64 minutes.

These two have a common quality opponent in North Oldham. North Oldham played Spencer in back to back games in December. They beat Spencer by 17 on Dec. 15 and lost by 3 to Great Crossing on Dec. 19.

The both also played fellow state tournament team in Male. Spencer played Male on Dec. 19 and lost by 2 and Male played Great Crossing in Jan. and lost by 2.

The young lady from Hopkinsville HS did an excellent job on the National Anthem.

Great Crossing gets on the board first on a dunk by Moreno and then a dunk Godfrey to lead 4-0.

6-2 GC.

Great Crossing leads 8-5 just under 6 minutes left in the first quarter.

10-5 now GC and Moreno has 8 of the 10 for the Warhawks.

Timeout Spencer Co. with 2:43 left in the 1st quarter as the Warhawks lead now 15-7.

Great Crossing leads 21-12 at the end of the first quarter. 

GC leads 21-17. Spencer is on a 8-0 run with 5:45 left in the half.