Lawrence County - 15th Region Champion State Tournament Preview

School: Lawrence County

City: Louisa, KY

Mascot: Bulldogs

Record: 23-10

KHSAA Sweet 16 Opponent: 10th Region Champions: Montgomery/Mason/GRC/Nicholas Co

Lawrence County has two seniors on the team, and they combine for a total of a point and a half. This is a team made up of sophomores and juniors that get after you all four quarters and score a bunch of points. They average 78 per game. The dawgs have won 4 straight. 

Key Wins: Martin County, Pikeville, Johnson Central, Pike County Central. 

Key Losses: Prestonsburg, Ashland, their three key wins were also three key losses. 

58th District Tournament:

Lawrence County's district tournament run was short lived. They dropped a 1 point game to Prestonsburg, a team they had previously beat twice by 37 combined points and a team that was under .500. This was also their fourth loss in five games. Gunnar Woods had 22 and Kaiden Harris had 20 in the loss. As a team they shot a measly 10/20 from the line. If Lawrence had been in any other region, there season would've ended here. 

15th Region Tournament:

No doing but their own, Lawrence had to take the long way in the region tournament. Their first game was against Johnson Central, and it was at Johnson Central. JC was red hot and had been playing good basketball. They went into their house and beat them by a tune of 94-82. Kaiden Harris had 23, Gunnar Woods had 22, Hayden Perry put up 18, and as a team they shot 20/25 from the line. This was their first upset they'd pull, as I didn't think they had much of a shot after losing to Prestonsburg. 

After that win, they were now in the final 8 and playing at PCC. This time Pikeville was the opponent. I got to watch all of this one and it was a back and forth game the entire time. Pikeville went up 3 with not a lot of time left and LC had to inbounds under their goal. They ran up the court, and banked in a 3 with a second left to send this one to OT. Pictures would later show it should've been counted a 2, but that's why they play the game. In OT Pikeville would hit an and one to go up one with ten seconds left, and not to be out done again, Lawrence came down and hit a jumper to give them the win by one to send them to the final four. Another game they were likely the underdog, they found a way to win. Gunnar Woods led the way again with 26. 

Lawrence Co was now in the final four, and they had to play host Pike County Central. They were done with the close games, as they put the beat down on PCC and won by a final of 93-76. Another high scoring game. Kaden Johnson led the way this time with 30, Kaiden Harris added 24, and as a team they shot 41% from three and 94% from the charity stripe.

The Cinderella team was now in the finals against Martin County. Martin had been the preseason favorite and was the favorite going into this game. Everyone must have got the memo except Lawrence County. Lawrence used a 17-5 run in the second quarter to put their halftime lead at 45-29. The final ended up being 97-84. Lawrence runs about seven deep and none of those are seniors, and they all contribute and play hard. This is a fun team to watch and a dangerous team to watch. They averaged 88 points per game in the region tournament and can score points in a hurry. 

Key Players To Watch:
Kaiden Harris (JR) - Harris is the leading scorer for the bulldogs with 18.7 per game. He shoots 54% from the field and is very efficient. He's also shooting 42% from deep. Harris shoots 75% from the stripe and grabs 3 boards per game. 

Gunnar Woods (JR) - He's the second leading scorer with 18.6 per game. Woods shoots 43% from the field and can fill it up quick. Woods also averages 4.2 boards per game. 

Hayden Perry (SO) - Perry is the third leading scorer with 15.5 per game. He shoots 46% from the field and has a clip. Perry is their best free throw shooter at 78% a game and leads them in rebounds with 5.5 per game.