The Professor

What’s the latest news on the merger of Christian County and Hopkinsville? I haven’t heard it mentioned in a while. I heard the new school name might be Hopkinsville-Christian Academy and the enrollment around 2,400. With those type numbers this new school would dominate the second region in most sports imo. Particularly basketball.

Sacred Heart looks like a college team. I don’t see anyone coming within 20 points of them in this tournament. And the scary thing is they only have one senior.

Opinions differ but it appears to me that Boyd has gotten away with quite a few fouls to begin the 3rd quarter.

Second straight overtime regional win for Boyd County. Most prognosticators had them winning the first two games easily. Ashland will be another stern test.

First regional championship for Breathitt County since 1996. It’s their 12th regional championship.

Breathitt County is up on Hazard by 7 at halftime.

Is Stephens related to Tim who played at Kentucky?

Powell County had a 1 point lead after the first quarter and after that they couldn’t handle Perry Central’s press. Turnover after turnover, and most led to a Commodore score.

Owsley County will take a 23-8 record into the 14th regional tournament at Leslie County. They lost a heartbreaker in last year’s championship game when Letcher Central made a last second shot in overtime to beat them by 1 out of a trip to Rupp Arena. Maybe this year they can get it done for the first regional basketball championship in school history.

Owsley County won their fourth consecutive district championship in convincing form 65-47 over Estill County. Lady Owls junior guard Carly Smith scored 30 points and was named MVP.

North Laurel is finally healthy and have a complete roster. They lost several games this year with one or more key players sidelined.

The Lady Owls traveled to Frenchburg for an afternoon game and came away with a 48-45 win to improve to 20-6 on the season. There’s two more games before district tournament: North Laurel will be at Owsley County Thursday and Lynn Camp visits Friday.

Highland fans, you can watch the game at Breathitt County right now on Bluegrass Sports Nation (BSN). Almost halftime right now.

And I 100% agree, lol

He shows up every night but when they had numerous injuries teams could put so much more focus on him. But even when he is not scoring bushels of baskets he is distributing the ball to those around him and they’re scoring. I was really impressed with him big time last summer in some top notch competition games on the summer circuit. He stood out against some of the top players in the country.

Good game in Hazard between quality teams in their respective regions.

North has lost several games this season because of players out with injuries. It looked like tonight that they are back healthy at the right time. If one just glances at the win-loss record of NL they might get the wrong assumption. They’re better than their record.

Thanks. I’m just not too familiar with that part of the state. I saw Sacred Heart in last year’s state tournament run and I agree, they’re on a different level. The sophomore Johnson is one of the best athletes to ever play high school hoops in the state. Some college (probably Louisville) is going to be very happy to land her in a couple of years.

I’m not from the 1st region, actually quite a distance away in the 14th region. However, looking through KHSAA scores I saw this 58-17 score then noticed McCracken County is 25-2 and Graves County is 20-5. Is McCracken that good or did Graves just have a bad game? I also noticed McCracken’s only losses are 3 points to Covington Holy Cross and 3 points to Ryle, two quality teams. I realize they are good and a contender for state title, but darn if that isn’t a big point differential for an opponent with 20 wins.

Harold Mullins and David Adams of Hometown24 said on the broadcast that there was at least 3500 at the game. I think Perry’s gym seats 4200. They were commenting how all the crowds had been up from past years in a lot of games. I have a theory for this reason. Originally people thought streaming games would hurt attendance but it’s actually had the opposite effect. It’s bringing these games and players right into living rooms and people who in past years kind of get distanced from what is happening at their schools athletic programs are suddenly reintroduced to the players. People who have gotten away from following find themselves getting interested again. “I believe that good guard is old John Doe’s grandson…” etc. And the next thing you know the guy decides to go to a few games. I think that’s why we’re seeing more support and fan activity in the last few years.

The best option is how we do it in the 56th. Every team plays each other twice and there are tie breakers determined by point totals (up to 15 points). The nice thing about seeding is it makes the season’s district games so much more meaningful. Crowds are bigger. Fans are into it. It’s not hardly a district tournament atmosphere but I’ve seen some intense games and crowd support over the years. Our district went to seeding around 1980, before then it was a blind draw. My school, Owsley, is the smallest of the 56th district schools (enrollments Powell and Estill are close to 700, Lee around 280 and Owsley about 200) but have always supported seeding. And I might add over the past 40 years since seeding began the Owls and Lady Owls have competed pretty good with the others in district. The boys have won 10 district titles and the girls have won 17.

I heard Buckhorn broke the tie vote. Perry and Hazard has always voted to seed and Buckhorn and Leslie didn’t want it. But I suppose they decided to go with the flow.

Owsley County defeated Hazard 74-59 in the Bobby Bowling Classic in Booneville Saturday. The Classic is in honor and remembrance of Owsley County’s late coach and athletic director who passed away at a young age from cancer a year ago.

Isparo is one tough kid. He’s going to make a D1 coach a heck of a guard.

The Lady Owls completed a 6-0 district record with a big win over Powell County in Stanton and are now 16-6 on the season. They are the top seed in the 56th district tournament, which will be played at Owsley County this year.