13th Region: Regional Tournament Preview and Rankings

[DearToday]

The regular season and the district tournaments have now passed. The 8 teams that made it are essentially the 8 that everyone had penciled in. All of the first round games will be played Wednesday and Thursday. The semi finals will be played on Saturday. The Championship will be played Monday. All games will be played at The Corbin Arena. First we will recap the districts. The runner-ups and the champs are where things got interesting. Harlan County evened things out against Bell County and won the 52nd by ten over the Bobcats. They’re now sitting at 2-2 on the season against each other, and I wouldn’t count out a fifth and deciding game to go to Rupp. North Laurel took care of business in the 49th and knocked off Clay County like I think many thought they would do. They’re now 2-1 against the Tigers on the year, with their only loss being in OT. South Laurel ended up victorious and champs of the 50th. They trailed by double digits throughout the entire game, before storming back to force OT and win by 1 over Corbin. Jordan Mabe hit a 3 with less than five seconds left to win the district for SL. Their prize? A matchup with Bell County. The biggest surprise though, was Pineville coming out on top in the 51st. After putting away an upset bid to Barbourville, Pineville finally knocked off Knox Central by 5 to win their district for the first time in a long time. This is about as wide open as the region has been in sometime, and should make for a great region tournament. Give me HC, Corbin, South Laurel, Clay County. HC and SL. Then HC for the region. 

 

Harlan County vs Knox Central: March 5th 6:00
The Black Bears look to defend their title from last year against Knox Central in the first round. HC has won their last six, and this includes wins over South Laurel, Bell County, and Pineville. HC is likely the prohibitive favorite right now to win the region.
Knox was upset in the district finals to wind up where they’re at. They had beat Pineville by 14 earlier in the year, but were knocked off by 5. Grayson Burton had 21 in the loss. They only shot 60% from the freethrow line in the loss. Knox will be a pretty big underdog, but I wouldn’t count them completely out just yet. Knox upset North Laurel last season at the region tournament before bowing out in the semi’s. 

North Laurel vs Corbin: March 5th 7:30
The good news for North Laurel? They were able to knock off Clay and win the 49th again. Reece Davidson had a monster game with 28 and 8. As a team they shot 64% from the field and 83% from the line. The bad? The win set them up with a rematch with Corbin. This will be their third game against the Redhounds in the last month. Corbin won both games by 5. Is the third time the charm?
The bad news for Corbin? They blew a double digit lead and an 8 point lead with 3 minutes left to lose to South Laurel in the district finals. Ryder Akins had a huge game with 33 in the loss. The good news? They get North who they've knocked off twice in the last month. Obviously you’d rather win your district tourney, but the draw ended up being better for the loser this time. Can Corbin do it again for the third time this month? 

South Laurel vs Bell County: March 6th 6:00
By far the opening tournament game of the week in the 13th region. South Laurel stormed back from deficits all game to knock off the Redhounds by 1 in OT. South has won six straight games dating back to mid February. Their last loss was to Great Crossing, who they had down most of the game. In those six wins, lies Bell County, who they are set to face Thursday. This was a game that was scheduled last minute and played, and South won by 7 at home. Bell has been right at the top of the region all season long, and they’re coming into this one hungry after a 10 point loss to HC in the district finals. The winner of this game, IMO, will be playing in the region finals. This will be an electric game that could easily go either way. 

Pineville vs Clay County: March 6th 7:30
This is a fun matchup. Pineville pulled the upset to win the 51st. They’ve had a great year and have a really good big three in Sawyer Thompson, Beck, and Moser. They will go as far as they can guard. Clay got knocked off by North Laurel by 12 in a game they were probably the underdog. These two teams did play against each other this season, with Clay taking the win by 12. Ethan Jackson and Aiden Wagers had big games for Clay in the win. Pineville had big games by Thompson and Moser, but Beck wasn’t on the team yet. Will he make the difference this time around? This should be a really good game. 

 

Rankings:

1. Harlan County (24-8): My favorite for the tournament. Favorable first round draw, tough second round matchup. 

2. South Laurel (23-8): Worst draw for the first round, but great draw if they can make it past their first game. 

3. Bell County (26-6): Same as SL!

4. Corbin (19-10): Not a bad draw at all, already a team they’ve knocked off twice. Can they put it all together to make a run?

5. North Laurel (19-10): Tough draw after dropping games twice to them. Hard to beat a team three times?

6. Clay County (21-7): Best draw they could’ve gotten as a district loser. Winnable game, tough second round game. 

7. Pineville (21-9): Best draw they could’ve gotten as a district winner. Winnable game, tough second round game. 

8. Knox Central (22-7): Extremely tough draw. If they can pull off one win, would have to be a success. 

9. Whitley County (19-11): Eliminated.

10. Williamsburg (17-10): Eliminated.

11. Barbourville (17-13): Eliminated.

12. OBI (15-14): Eliminated.

13. Jackson County (11-18): Eliminated.

14. Harlan (5-25): Eliminated.

15. Lynn Camp (7-22): Eliminated. 

16. Middlesboro (8-21): Eliminated.

17. Red Bird (0-23): Eliminated.

[LethalPG]

I really wish I could make it down, and see some of this tournament.  Hopefully shooting isn't too bad being at the Arena, but I expect it highly contested throughout!  I predict Harlan Co. and South Laurel to prevail to the finals, with South Laurel coming out on top!