ColonelMike

Trimble County heads to Oldham County Friday night 12-13-19 for a big 29th district seeding game. Both teams come in 2-1 on the season. Oldham just took its first loss to Assumption; Trimble is on a two-game winning streak. Oldham scored 143 points in their two wins, but the Lady Colonels faced minimal competition from Valley and Eminence in those contests. (combined record: 1-10) Trimble County has excelled on defense; Frankfort scored just 44 points (but beat Trimble for the Lady Raiders' lone loss), but Carroll County (37 points) and Waggener (32 points) have failed to reach 40 in Trimble's two wins. However, Trimble's two victories came over two teams that are a combined 0-8. Maddie Clark (13 ppg) leads a balanced Oldham County attack. She's the only player in double digits, but four other players average 7-9 ppg. Oldham is a pretty decent shooting team, and features three solid inside players in Lakynn Goldsmith, Aliyah Swanson, and 5'10" freshman Reagan Cheatham, who scores 7 ppg and a team-high 5 rebounds per game off the bench. Trimble, as a team, has not shot the ball well this year (33.8%), but they may have the best player on the floor tonight in Shelby Wilcoxson, who is averaging a beastly 21 ppg and 6 rebounds, both team highs. Wilcoxson, an aggressive, savvy player, is good at getting to the line - she's shot 27 of Trimble's 50 free throws this year and hit 23 for 85.2%. If Trimble can get the ball into Wilcoxson's hands in scoring position, the Lady Raiders may be able to pull the upset. For Oldham, the key will be using their defensive pressure defense to create turnovers and transition baskets. Live video coverage starts at 5:30 pm ET on The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN CM

Should be an interesting game, but I would think Spencer will be favored, dead legs or not. Oldham is an interesting team - like Spencer, they are junior-dominated. But unlike Spencer, Oldham's juniors are not varsity-tested. Whereas the Bears' juniors - particularly Hornback, Whitlock, and Conley - have been playing together on the varsity for a few years, the Oldham juniors were mostly JVers last season, albeit on a very good JV team. Oldham's only returning starters are juniors Tyler Slone and Sam Campbell, and Campbell was a part-time starter last year (though he played a lot of varsity minutes). Point guard Steven Votaw - the lone starting senior - was a bit player last year, as was Deaton Oak. Xander Wagner-Rose, the Colonel center, almost never played varsity last season. Spencer's significant advantage in experience will be a big test for Oldham. CM

He shot 8 over the first three quarters and 8 in the fourth quarter which was when he kind of took over and began aggressively making moves to the basket.

The Trimble County Raiders travel to Buckner, KY tonight (12/13/19) for a 29th District seeding game against the Oldham County Colonels. Oldham comes into the game undefeated at 3-0 on the season after wins over North Hardin, Covington Holy Cross, and Danville. Trimble County is 2-3 on the season, and 0-1 in district play after falling to North Oldham on Wednesday, 81-48. Coy Zerhusen, the Oldham coach, is in his 7th season in Buckner. His first 5 teams won the district (the Colonels were runners-up to South Oldham last season). The Colonels have made it to the region finals three times in the previous six seasons, winning it all in 2018, when Oldham advanced all the way to the state final four. Marcus Mumphrey is in his first season at Trimble County. Oldham is off to a good start with a bunch of juniors; Steven Votaw - the Colonels' point guard - is the lone senior in the starting lineup. Only two starters return from last year's 20-14 team: 6'4" junior wing Tyler Slone (10 ppg) and 6'1" junior shooting guard Sam Campbell (15.7 ppg). Rounding out the starting five are 6'6" junior Xander Wagner-Rose (14.7 ppg / 8 rebounds) and 6'1" junior guard Deaton Oak (17.7 ppg) This is a talented bunch of players who can score, but which are still rounding into form at the varsity level after a successful JV campaign last year. Trimble is led by star senior guard Reece Webster, perhaps one of the best players you've never heard of in the Region. Webster missed the first game with an injury, but has come back and is leading the Raiders in scoring (12.5 ppg) and rebounding (3.8) despite not yet being 100%. Dylan Jennings (10 ppg) and Beau Turner (9 ppg) give the Raiders a three-pronged offensive attack. The shooting and rebounding have been a little spotty early on for Trimble, but some of that can be expected early on with a new coach / new system. Trimble has lost to Grant County and North Oldham in the region, and also to Switzerland County (IN). The Raiders own victories over Carroll County and Owen County. Live video coverage of the game begins at approximately 7:45(ish) on the Pegasus Sports Network at The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN. CM

Big scores from tonight: North Oldham 69, Spencer County 66 - fourth straight year the North - Spencer game was decided by 3 points. Anderson County 33, Grant County 28 - Anderson missed on a two-point conversion - no wait, wrong sport...LOL

OMG. Was Dean Smith coaching on the Anderson sideline??? :lol2: Wow. Thought the Anderson defense was much improved this year, and that it might be the Bearcats' ticket to a good season, but this is very impressive against one of the elite offenses in the region. 28 points!!?? Anderson held Grant to less than a point per minute played. Good grief. I have stated to a number of people that I feel that as many as 10 teams have a legitimate chance to win the region - I'm feeling more convinced of that daily. Congrats to the Bearcats on a big, big win! CM

I have to agree with Cardsrule on this one. Conley may not win the award - there's an awful lot of legit competition in Morrison, Powell, McKnight, Niece, etc. - but Conley is a definite contender for POY. Not many - if any - of the candidates are going to wind up on an undefeated team; all will take losses, most likely. Playing as well as Conley did in a loss tonight is a feather in his cap, IMO. He played a fantastic game tonight. His biggest handicap may be his age - over the decades, the voters have shown a definite preference towards giving the award to seniors over underclassmen if the qualifications are deemed to be pretty "equal". That would tend to give players like Powell, McKnight, and Morrison a leg up on guys like Conley and Niece. CM

Could have gone either way. Put these two on the court against each other every day the next ten days and the two will split 5-5. North Oldham 15 17 16 21 - 69 Spencer County 13 18 15 20 - 66 Biggest lead of the game was 6. Neither team would allow the other to get on an extended run throughout. Effort was tournament-caliber; execution was predictable given that it was just North's third game (second with Justin Powell and Rico Carr-Cole playing) and Spencer's fourth game. At times, the fact it was "early-season", coupled with the intensity of playing one of the better teams in the region, often led to less-than-desirable execution on the floor. But the effort was sterling. All else will come. Tremendous matchup of two of the region's best. Though North's Justin Powell (30 points, 5 rebounds, boatload of assists) and Spencer's Sam Conley (28 points, 5 rebounds) both had moments they'd like to forget, both showed athleticism, smarts, and talent that make both legitimate 8th Region Player of the Year candidates. Powell started the game like a freight train, hitting 3 of his first 5 shots (including 2 of 2 threes) and a pair of FTs for 10 points early in the first quarter. The Mustangs' talented point guard would probably like to forget going 1 for 10 from late in the first through all of the second and third quarters - but he wanted the ball in the fourth, coach David Levitch gave it to him, and he hit four of six shots in the fourth, along with 6 of 8 free throws to propel the Mustangs to the win. Likewise, Conley - who shot the ball well all night (unofficially, 11 of 20) - would probably like to forget going just 1 for 4 at the line in the first half; three rare misses from the Spencer star that would have come in handy late in the game. But Spencer's leading scorer also came up big in crunch time, scoring half his points in the final frame. Spencer played seven in the ballgame... besides Conley, Lucas Hornback had 18 and Gage Mabry had 10. Mabry came up big early, hitting two threes in the first half on wide-open threes from the corner. North finally started shutting down the corner, but Hornback found openings - the 6'3" junior hit five threes in the contest. Overall, Spencer hit twelve threes, per the PSN unofficial stats. North got big games from its two interior players, the Higdon brothers. Senior Tyler and freshman Ian both had double figure scoring nights, with Tyler getting 14 points and 9 rebounds, and Ian hitting 4 of 5 shots and 2 of 2 FTs for 10 points. At the half, North had led for most of the first two quarters, only to see Spencer rally to take a 31-30 lead with 30 seconds left in the half. The Mustangs came down and got a two from Luke Berry just before intermission to make it 32-31, North - it was the only points North had in the first half from someone not named Powell or Higdon (Justin Powell, Tyler Higdon, and Ian Higdon each had 10 at the break). Some notes: - Both teams wanted to run, run, run, and both converted numerous baskets in transition. - Though a lot of fouls were called, only one player -North's Ian Higdon - fouled out. One other Mustang - Tyler Higdon - ended the game with four fouls. Four Bears finished the game with four fouls, though - Whitlock, Mabry, Jaggers, and Conley. - North now leads the all-time series with Spencer County, 10-3. Amazingly, the last four games between the two schools have all been decided by three points. GREAT GAME! This was an incredibly exciting game for December. Congrats to North Oldham and good luck to both teams the rest of the way! CM

Mabry misses three at buzzer. FINAL North Oldham 69 Spencer County 66

Tyler Higdon fouled by Jaggers with 12.3 left. North by 2....

68-66 with 18.7

Tyler Higdon hits 1 of 2 FTs. North 68-63 with 28.3 seconds left. Spencer ball

6 minutes to play North 53-51

half North Oldham 32 Spencer County 31 Luke Berry hits a long two off the left side to give North a halftime lead. North led most of the first half but the longest lead was 6. Justin Powell, Tyler Higdon, and Ian Higdon all have 10 for the Mustangs.

Live video coverage begins at 7 pm ET The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN Tip off at 7:30 pm. Difficult to post updates while broadcasting, but I'll do what I can. CM

First game of the 2019 Ronald McDonald House Classic features the "Mustangs vs. the Mustangs". North Oldham and Moore both have some games to play before they meet Saturday. North Oldham (0-1) plays Trimble County tonight and powerful Spencer County on Thursday. Moore (3-1), which had been scoring a lot of points before falling in their last game to North Bullitt, 65-58, will play the Meade County Green Wave tonight. A lot of folks will be watching 8th Region Player of the Year candidate Justin Powell, the talented Auburn signee who has returned to the school he began his playing career at. It will be an interesting matchup; probably the biggest challenge of the season so far for Moore, which has had a somewhat lightweight schedule to date. For North, it will be just their third game with Powell in the lineup, and it will be intriguing to see how quickly North is building chemistry. Not a lot of stats to review; North has played just one game as of this writing and Moore has yet to post any stats. Live video coverage begins at 1 pm ET on The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN CM

The Trimble County Raiders travel to Buckner on Friday to face the Oldham County Colonels in an early-season 29th District seeding battle. Trimble County is coming off a victory over Owen County that has evened the Raiders' record at 2-2 on the season. Beau Turner (10.3 ppg), Dylan Jennings (12.3 ppg), and Reece Webster (12.5 ppg) lead Trimble, which is on a 14 game losing streak against the Colonels. The Raiders' last win in the series came on 12/19/08, when Trimble beat Oldham County, 59-48, in Bedford. The Raiders are led by first-year coach Marcus Mumphrey... Oldham comes in with a 3-0 mark, but this Oldham team is still a bit of an unknown. The Colonels only really feature one returning starter, and four of the starters are underclassmen. Granted, those players were the mainstays on a pretty good JV team last year, but "varsity speed" is totally different. The Colonels are led by Deaton Oak, averaging 17.7 ppg. Sam Campbell (15.7), Xander Wagner-Rose (14.7 / 8.0 rebounds), and Tyler Sloane (10.0) also average in double digits. A pretty strong shooting team, Oldham is hitting 49% from the floor and 38% from beyond the arc. This game undoubtedly hinges upon the Oldham pressure defense and how Trimble handles it. Live video coverage begins at 5:30 pm ET with the girls' game - this is a doubleheader - the boys' game follows, with coverage beginning around "7:45ish" on The Pegasus Sports Network - PSN CM

8th had some good basketball last night... The three games between 8th region teams were settled by 4 points (Carroll-Eminence), 4 points (South - Spencer) and 2 points (Trimble-Owen). The five games against out of region teams resulted in the region going 4-1. Only Woodford fell, in a narrow four point loss to one of the 11th Region's better teams, Frederick Douglass. Collins got a nice win against one of the better 6th Region teams, Bullitt East. Williamstown scored 87 points against Villa Madonna, the most points scored by a Demons team since 2/8/2017, when Williamstown lost in double OT to Bracken County, 89-87.

Did Tyler Rice play for Anderson?

I think they will contend in the 30th and perhaps in the region tournament - although they suffered their biggest loss to date to the lone 8th region team they've played so far.

Anderson moves to 4-0 on the season.

Coach Tuell didn't get this win, but he's obviously making a difference in Eminence in a hurry. CM

wow

Not many teams hold South under 70 points - not many teams hold Spencer under 70 points. Two of the highest scoring teams in the region both held under 60....

Four tough games for Woodford to start the season ....the Jackets are 1-3, but have lost the last two games by just five total points.