Birds finish the season 13-5.

 

Highlands: True 12, McCoy 10, Witte 8, Turner 6, Carter 2, Christian 1

 

Holmes: Englemon 8, Peterson 8, Palmer 8, Spencer 6, Coston 4

 

Scoring by quarters:

 

Highlands: 8-10-14-7-39

Holmes: 7-10-15-4--36

 

Holmes jumped out to a 27-22 lead in the 3rd quarter but Witte and True combined for 12 of the Birds 14 that quarter to tie it up. Birds would then win the game in the 4th.

Great game by HHS, congrats especially after Holmes beat Scott the other night. Big confidence builder for the HHS frosh, heading into the tourney!

 

The Frosh tourney is wide and I mean wide open this year due to the large number of quality teams playing freshmen basketball in NKy this year!

Congrats to the Birds for maintaining composure in the 3rd qtr when the Bulldogs made their run. They tried to speed up the tempo of the game and built a 5pt lead. Coach Lykins called a very good timeout and got the ball on the block to True for a big bucket to cut it to 3 and then Witte hit a big 3 pter to tie the ballgame back at 27.

 

Subs for Highlands came in and gave some nice minutes. David Christian had a couple nice rebounds as well as Jake Gronotte. Zac Carter and Karl Hinkel also gave quality minutes at the guard spot when Turner went out with foul trouble.

 

This game had only 1 referee and he did an outstanding job. The last 50 seconds of the game it got heated and he missed a couple big calls that changed the possession arrow against Highlands when it shouldnt have and also Collinsworth got pushed out of bounce and had to throw it in to a Holmes player who went down and got fouled shooting with about 18 seconds. Palmer went to the line down 37-36 and missed both FT's giving the Birds the ball and the advantage.

 

Luke Turner was fouled right away and went to the line draining both with ice in his veins to make it 39-36 and only 3 seconds left. Holmes inbounded the ball and got to halfcourt calling a timeout with just over a second left. They threw it in to Palmer who was 40 feet away and a desperation 3 was way short.

 

Keys of the game

 

Nick True and his scoring/rebounding. Bailey Witte knocking down two 3's in the game and almost had another but his foot was on the line. Collinsworth didnt score but he locked down Coston the strong athletic point guard. McCoy hit some big 2nd half buckets in the lane.

 

Englemon and Peterson both go about 6'2 and are very athletic. They were key for the Bulldogs and Palmer hit a couple big 3pters in the 3rd qtr.

 

Should be interesting to see if the Birds get a top seed in the Cov Cath Tourney. I heard they are right there.

C

 

This game had only 1 referee and he did an outstanding job.

 

That's not good that only one was there. Who was it?

 

Its tough to call a game with 2. One is almost impossible.

David Blanchett and he did outstanding. Seriously he didnt miss much and certainly didnt call too many fouls.

 

The only time it got tough was in the first half he was out of position to see a ball defelct off a Birds player's knee and called it Highlands ball. The Highlands coach and players said that they hit it out and it was the right thing to do.

 

In the 2nd half when the same thing happened late in the 4th qtr and a Holmes player clearly hit the ball out of bounce nobody from the Holmes bench or players stepped up to say it was off of them. The ref could only call a jump and the ball was given to the Birds but the possession arrow changed. That was a crock for the Birds as they should have had the ball anyway and they lost a possession on it. So Holmes had the possession arrow the last 1:40 of the game and the ball down 1.

 

It didnt matter but made for a rather nervous last minute of the game for the Bird fans.

 

Apparently the other ref that didnt show was a female, not that it matters but that might give you an idea of who it might have been.

David Blanchett and he did outstanding.

 

At least the one that showed up was a good one.

Q and Clyde -

 

For those that post with recaps, it makes it very nice to follow the older boys when you have boys playing in the younger ranks and can't make it to all the games. It really allows you to follow your home team and then when you have an opportunity to catch a game you enjoy it much more. I just enjoy watching good basketball. :thumb:

Birds finish the season 13-5.

 

The Middle School teams in N Ky, including Highlands play 23 scheduled games plus in season and end of season tourneys. The 7th grade boys will play 28 to 30 games this season.

 

Are the Middle schools playing too much ball or are the frosh being short changed?

At first I thought they were getting short changed but un Jan they plated 3 games a week. They didn't start Nov 1st like middle school either. It gives them more practice time and doesn't burn em out. I think the 19 game schedule plus the Cov cath tourney is plenty. Most of the boys will play in the offseason and I know one that will start working out with trainers starting Feb 15th.

Congratulations to Coach Lykins and his freshmen for a good season. Good luck in the Cov Cath Tourney.

Coach Lykins and assistant Joe Herald have done a great job this year. They have a great demeanor on the sideline and the kids seem to really enjoy playing for them.

Freshman teams always get short changed in games in most sports. It looks like the middle schools are playing to many games IMO. It seems to me that a few less games and a little more studying would be in the kids best interest.