B-Ball-fan

NIce write-up @Colonels_Wear_Blue This should be an awesome first round game. Hope that you don't mind me pointing out that Highlands beat Ashland last season in the Semi's, and then beat Elizabethtown in the Finals.

*Teams on this list with any losses are still undefeated against Kentucky competition. As of 3/9/22 there is only 1 undefeated team. Region 10 George Rogers Clark - (33-1)

It’s also cool to note that Pikeville has Sweet 16 royalty as their head coach, Elisha Justice, who lead his Shelby Valley team to being the 2010 Sweet 16 Champs, who also went on to play at Louisville, and ending this college playing career at Pikeville College before becoming the head coach at Pikeville High School. That Shelby Valley team had Jason Booher as their head coach who helped to groom that year’s team from grade school on, and led a core unit of childhood friends to reach their dreams. If I’m not mistaken, that Shelby Valley team is the last small school team to have won the Sweet 16. Most small schools are happy to win the All ‘A’ Classic, which they also did that season, but they triumphed, and took all of the marbles with a 32-4 record, and beat a strong Ballard team in the finals 73-61. Go Panthers!

4th Region (I think that Warren Central wins as they are a very dangerous team right now), but my second choice would be the 16th between Ashland and Boyd. The 9th Region (the region I follow most closely) will play the winner of the 16th in the first round of the Sweet 16, so I'm eager to see who that will be. Whoever does come out of the 4th Region will have to play Male in the first round. Heavy duty matchup right out of the gate.

*Teams on this list with any losses are still undefeated against Kentucky competition. As of 3/7/22 there is only 1 undefeated team. Region 10 George Rogers Clark - (32-1)

Closer than I would have guessed. Thanks @Randy Parkerfor the fun updates.

No, but it's the 37th District's turn to host. Is that acceptable to you that they have their turn at hosting? Holmes is a large enough facility to hold it. You're not going to win in this debate with me, so just accept what is fair, and that it's the 37th Districts turn to host.

Smaller than usual gym? Really?

It’s the 37th District’s turn to host the 10th Region Tournament. The 37th is comprised of Scott High (Kenton County), Calvary Christian (Kenton County), Campbell Co, and Bishop Brossart (Campbell Co). None of those 4 schools have a big enough facility to hold the tournament, so since Holmes (in Kenton County) has a large facility that can hold 3000+ people, they were asked if their gym could be used for the tournament. The fact that Holmes is a 9th Region school is meaningless here in the grand spectrum of things. They are however in close proximity to said teams, and the 37th rightfully, with the help of Holmes, can host the 10 Region Tournament as is their turn to do so every 4 years.

BluegrassPreps.com 9th Region Tournament Review and Finals Preview The 9th Region Tournament Finals are all set for Tuesday night at 7:00 at the BB&T arena on the campus of NKU. The 34th District Champs: The Dixie Heights Colonels (22-6) will face off with the 35th District Champs: The Covington Catholic Colonels (27-4) Winner will advance to the Kentucky Boys Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, March 16-19 and will face the champs of the 16th Region: Very possibly the Ashland Blazer Tomcats (24-5). How did we get here? The 9th Region Tournament is comprised of 8 teams; the champs and runner-ups from Distrcts 33, 34, 35, & 36 where in the quarterfinals of the tournament, district champs will play the runner-up of another district while the runner-up of said district must be in the opposite bracket, and cannot play their own district champs again until the tourament finals if in the case that both advance that far. The drawing for the tourmament was held on Saturday morning, Feb 26th at Holmes High School the day after all of the district tournaments had been completed. The quarterfinals matchups were as follows: (All games were played at the BB&T Arena on the campus of NKU) 36th District Champs - Highlands Bluebirds vs. 34th District Runner-ups - Lloyd Memoiral Juggernauts 35th District Champs - Covington Catholic Colonels vs. 33rd District Runner-ups - Cooper Jaguars 34th District Champs - Dixie Heights Colonels vs. 36th District Runner-ups - Newport Wildcats 33rd District Champs - Conner Cougars vs. 35th District Runner-ups - Holy Cross Indians The Quarterfinal Games: - Saturday, March 5 The 9th Region Tournament kicked off with all four quarterfinals games being played on Saturday March 5th Right out of the gate the fans at the BB&T Arena were treated to a thriller between the defending state champs, The Highlands Bluebirds vs. The Lloyd Memorial Juggrnauts. In the regualar season game between the two, the Lloyd upstarts emphatically took care of business at Highlands' home in Ft. Thomas with the biggest statement win of their fantastic season, winning 91-78. Everyone expected a very competitive game that could go either way, and wondered if this Lloyd team was for real, and could they do it again? If anyone doubted them before, there was no doubting them now. With a balanced scoring attack in a game that changed hands on multiple occasions, the Lloyd Juggernauts prevailed 75-64 to advance to the tournament semi-finals lead by the sharp shooting of previously injured Ryan Davis who ended the day with 18 points accompanined by double figure scoring from Jeremiah Israel, the Coach's son, freshman 6'7" E.J. Walker, and Garrett Vogelpohl, also with healthy scoring contributions from Zaire Monroe, and Teyon Neale who knocked down a couple of clutch 3's to help advance the Juggernaut's cause. The 2nd game of the day saw the Number 1 team of the 9th Region, the Covington Catholic Colonels take on the runner-ups from District 33 The Cooper Jaguars coached by the highly respected Tim Sullivan who has been known to with his heavy defensive style of play, keep his team in the winning column, which he did 22 times this season with only 6 losses. This would be the only time this season that these two teams path's met, and while Covington Catholic is supremely a dominant team who tore their way throgh the 9th Region this season, many wondered if the Jags had what it took to have their number like no other team could. Right at the beginning of the game the Colonels would jump out to a 7-0 lead having most believe that it would be a long day for the Jags, but with their never say die attitude Cooper faught back hard always keeping within striking distance to ultimately have the score amazingly all netted up at 36 by the end of the 3rd quarter. It was game on, and the Colonels fans were beginning to sit nervously in their seats. The Colonels flexed their muscle in the 4th quarter outscoring the Jags 13-1 and winning 49-37. The Colonels laid down the law and would not be denied, but the Jags gave them the scare that no other 9th Region team this season could. The 3rd game of the quarterfinals pitted the 34th District Champs, The Dixie Heights Colonels against the 36th District Runner-ups, the Newport Wildcats in a game where Newport tried their best to slow down the Red Colonels and contain them, but to no avail. Dixie, lead by Kiernan Geraci and Billy Wogenstahl with also a very talented supporting cast were just too strong as they took care of business, and getting the win 51-37, advancing to the semi-finals. The nightcap game of the quarterfinals gave us the highly anticipated rematch of the Conner Cougars, and the Holy Cross Indians where in their regular season game the Cougars just squeaked by the Indians 71-69. Lead by Kentucky's high school scoring leader Jacob Meyer, and teammate Javier Ward, the Indians jumped out to a huge lead where Ward broke a regional tourney record connecting on 7 3's, and Meyer tied Scotty Draud's regional tourney record of 41 points. The game looked comfortably in hand for the Indians who had built a commanding 19 point lead, but the Cougars did not roll over, and faught back to ultimately tie the game at 67. The Indians got the late game spurt they needed to secure the game that they thought was their's all along, and winning 80-74. The Semifinals - Sunday, March 6 Covington Catholic vs. Lloyd Memorial Dixie Heights vs. Holy Cross In the first game of the semifinals, here again we saw the Covignton Catholic Colonels go up against a team that they had not played in the regular season, the Lloyd Juggernauts who had just the day before beaten the defending state champs, the Highlands Bluebirds for the 2nd time this season. There were now many believers who thought that the Jugss could compete with the Colonels, and compete they did keeping things relitively close most of the 1st half, but the Colonels extended their lead to 7 just before the break. Something in my bones at half time told me that the Colonels would dominate the 3rd quarter to put this game out of reach, and they did just that starting the 3rd period on a 13-0 run putting them up by 20. Lloyd managed to cut it to 11 by the 4th quarter but no closer, having the Colonels win 71-52 and advancing to the 9th Region Tournament Finals. In the other semifinal game Dixie took on Holy Cross in a game that stayed relitively close throughout, seeing Jacob Meyer once again reach 40 points, but Ward was shut down by the Cougars limiting his scoring, and for the Indians it was mostly a one man show versus the balanced team effort of the Dixie Heights Colonels lead by Kiernan Geraci scoring 25 points. The Indians kept things interesting until the final minute, but Dixie Heights got the win 65-57 advancing them to the 9th Region Tournament Finals to face the Covington Catholic Colonels. Congratulations to all of the teams who made it to the 9th Region Tournament where 7 of the 8 teams were 20 game winners! Good luck next season! Once again: The 9th Region Tournament Finals are all set for Tuesday night at 7:00 at the BB&T arena on the campus of NKU. The 34th District Champs: The Dixie Heights Colonels (22-6) will face off with the 35th District Champs: The Covington Catholic Colonels (27-4) Winner will advance to the Kentucky Boys Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, March 16-19 and will face the champs of the 16th Region: Very possibly the Ashland Blazer Tomcats (24-5). Good luck to both teams!

Might be strange to say this when Meyer ended with 40, and kudos to him for sharing the ball, but while he was undoubtedly their money maker, there was a good chunk of time there in the 2nd half where he time and again opted to pass on shots, and pass the ball instead. I kept thinking that if he had just stayed the course doing his thing the outcome might’ve been entirely different. He was absolutely dynamite when he was in control. The entire team knows his worth, and I wonder if they would have minded any if he had just taken over, like the entire time. If they had won because he took every shot, I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with that. Things weren’t clicking with Ward like they were with him against Conner. Some were wondering what was happening with him. As of now I haven’t heard anything regarding that, but it sure seemed odd. Congrats to the Red Colonels for making it to the finals. You’ve had a great consistent season, and stayed in the top 3 most of the way, and have proved that you were worthy of never having dropped from being rated one of the top dogs in the region. Good luck against the Blue Colonels!

When was the last time a team held Ipsaro to zero points in the first half? My guess would be never. Right there was a big win for the Jags. Impressive!

I'm paraphrasing, but someone commented how Cooper had slowed the game down, and this was my response: Actually the Jags didn’t slow it down as much as we’re used to seeing. The 36-36 tied game at the end of 3 might suggest this, but they played with more intensity on the offensive side of the ball than I’ve seen them play all season. With the Colonel’s relentless “D” the Jags had to stay on their toes, and even early on when they got down 7-0 they were forced to rush things frantically until they were able to find a better rhythm to settle down some to get back in it. I was impressed when they did because at first the game had blowout written all over it. They were patient enough to find crafty ways to score when often it appeared there was nothing there. I’ll agree that their patience is a sign of slowing things down, but being down most of the game they couldn’t afford to sit back taking the air out of the ball like we’ve often seen them do this season. Even in their 20+ wins this season, with their slow ball intense ‘D’ approach, they never seemed to ever put any teams away, but just enough to get the ‘W’ as a win is a win. They seemed to play up or down to their opponents’ strengths. For example they only beat Newport this season by 5, and were still able to give the almighty Colonels a good game. Their formula is pretty unique, and as we’ve seen by a largely successful season, very effective. While this was a win for the Colonels, it really didn’t feel like a loss for the Jags. Their never say die ethos sure gave the crowd at the BB&T something to see. Both teams wanted it bad, but even in their loss the Jags still seemed to have won the Mr. Hustle award all said and done.

Shutting down Hamilton was huge.

Congrats to the Holy Cross Indians! Good luck going forward.

The Reed brothers are dynamite, and fun to watch. I'm truly amazed by their talents. It's going to be fun to watch their high school careers the next few years.

My head says Campbell, my heart says Bracken.

Possibly Lyon's first Sweet 16 since 1951. That truely would be sweet. Stories like that make the Sweet 16 all the more special.

Wow!

Wow!

Thanks for the updates @Randy Parker

Crunch time

This is probably not a good answer to the question, but I’m not a big fan of the overly hyped, overkilled amped up P.A. announcing at the BB&T arena games where you can’t hear yourself think. If it’s not the way too loud P.A. announcing then it’s the amped up music all that takes away from the experience if you’re at all trying to talk to whoever you attended that game with. If I wanted to attend a concert, then I’d attend a concert. I probably sound old but I can jam out with the best of them at a concert, and I suppose the general public don’t mind the additional fabricated excitement, but I simply want to attend a basketball game where I already expect band and fan noise, but the overkill nonsense that I’m referring to, I can surely do without.

Wolfe was in a pretty good position to win after going up by 2, but slamming the ball (I realize that he was excited) messed that chance up. You just can't do that no matter if overjoyed, or in frustration. Some thought that the 'T' was a bad call. It was not...it was the right call. In the first OT when the kid from Wolfe made the 3 to tie sending game to the 2nd OT he actully walked getting in position to shoot, but it was a no call. With those two items alone, the right team won, and I have no dog in the fight.

Video of game on FB https://www.facebook.com/bluegrasssportsnation/videos/341067354622511?notif_id=1646275209841729&notif_t=comment_mention&ref=notif