Intentional Foul

Chelsea Williams may deserve to be on the list, but I have only seen her play once and she was in foul trouble for much of the game I attended. She did not contribute much that game. If I had seen her play more I might have added her to my list. I only listed the girls that I KNEW had the potential of being top ten players. I still believe that the top 10 players on my list are justified.

My top10 picks in no particular order: Eagle (Morgan) Vanderhoof (Raceland) Wilcox (Ashland) Strait (Ashland) Simpson (Russell) Burge (East) Stevens (West) S. Ferguson (Elliott) Riddle (Rowan) Brockman (Rowan) Honorable Mention: Dietrich (Ashland), Parsley (Russell), Marth (Lewis), Griffith (Elliott), Keeton (Raceland)

I would definitely support Kidwell for the boy's job. He has done a great job with the girls' program and he has a lot of past experience coaching boys. If Russell is smart, they won't let him get away.

I agree Bailey, all the girls mentioned and Coach Tackett have done a great job this season.

I agree Dfenz:thumb:

Any News on Tia Gibbs for Butler. I heard she was taken to the hospital during the game. If this is true, the Butler players must have really stepped it up. Gibbs scored about 35 points in the morning game against Manual. She is an unbelievable talent on both ends of the floor.

Sounds like an unbelievable final. Congrats to both teams for outstanding seasons!

It is a fact that Mason beat Ashland, but the 18 point win might have been a little misleading in that Ashland was without POY Laisha Ward and her 15 points and 12 rebounds that night. Would Ashland have still lost to Mason - very likely, but they most likely would not have been "worn out" by them. Regarding Scott county, they ended the season as 16-14, albeit in the ulta-competitive 11 region. Not taking anything away from Rowan, they won the region and deserved their trip to Diddle. Just wanted to point out a few facts.....:thumb:

Rowan beat Ashland so Rowan deserved to be at Diddle. Could Ashland have competed at Diddle - I believe so but only with the more "mediocre" teams. Teams like Butler or Manual would have eaten Ashland alive as they would have Rowan. As for Ashland losing to teams ranked 4th or 5th in their region I would like to know who they were? Ashland lost to Johnson Central, Connor, Mason County, Rowan, and East Carter. All of these teams ended the season in the tops of their regions (even East could make a claim to being 3rd in the 16th before being upset by West in the district).

I've been against all -tourney teams for years. I hate the idea of coaches picking the team. I also hate the idea of mandating a certain number of players selected from each team. Even when these methods are not used I still dislike these awards. Individual awards are usually given for individual statistics. When players (and parents) focus on statistics there are always going to be problems. Why do we need these awards? The players should be playing to win as a team, and for no other reason. As for resume' builiding, if a player is college material then sending out video and other information to colleges can achieve the same purpose. I don't even like Mr. or Miss Basketball. To many sectional biases and voting by people who have not actually seen the nominees play.

:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

Unbelievable final between 2 quality teams. Rowan loses 3 seniors and Ashland 1 but both teams have a lot of talent coming back for next year. Both should be ranked up there again with the favorites of the region. Congrats to Rowan on a great come from behind win. The Rowan girls never gave up and it paid off. To the Ashland girls I also want to commend their efforts and congratulate them on a stellar season. There were a lot of naysayers that didn't think Ashland could compete against Rowan - Last night's game proved them wrong.

Raceland will definitely be a regional force to be reckoned with in the years to come. Great job by Coach Trimble and his staff. Also great job by the Raceland players. They had to overcome a lot of adversity this year. Congrats to the Ashland Kittens on a very successful season. The finals should be a great one.

Rowan has the best full-court defense in the region. I believe that Ashland has the best half-court defense in the region.

I believe that vanderhoof was out when Ashland played Raceland in the 30 point loss. Raceland is now healthy, just won their district, and won their first round regional game - I think that the Kittens will have a much tougher time beating the Lady Rams this time around. I look for a very close game with Ashland barely pulling it out by under 5 points.

I agree that if East would have gotten out of their district they could very well have made it to the regional finals. East has a fine team and is coached by a fine staff. However, I believe that Rowan and Ashland (in that order) have consistently been the top 2 favorites of the 16th region for the majority of the season

Congrats to Raceland on the win. Trimble has the Lady Rams playing their best ball at the right time. The 63rd district is sending 2 quality teams to Morehead. Raceland is definitely a regional contender and I wouldn't count out the Lady Devil's from making some noise. I'm sure Kidwell still has a few tricks up his sleeve that he'll be showing in Morehead.

Possibly....but I'm not giving out any hardware until the actual district and regional tournaments are finished. Any 16th team that thinks they are a lock for a regional title this year may end up very disappointed by March. Its still very much any team's to win.

Congrats to Bath on their win over Menifee and their trip to the region, but Rowan wins this one big.

I agree, anything can happen: West beats East after East beats Ashland Russell is down by 20 to Lewis and still wins At 2:00 left if the game, Fleming is down only 2 to Rowan (and Fleming's ball) Boyd County is only up by 3 pts against Rose Hill in the 3rd quarter There's still a lot of ball to be played and I predict a few more surprises. No one should be ordering their hotel rooms at Diddle just yet!!!!

Survive and advance........

Great article!!!! There is NO player in this region (or in the state) that deserves a major newspaper write-up more than Rachel Vanderhoof. No question one of the most mentally tough players this region has ever seen (boys or girls). Hopefully she will put the "injury bug" behind her and have a successful post season and senior year.

You may be right Dfenz. I have seen Rowna play many times this year and I agree they are the #1 team in the region right now. But any real basketball fan knows that ANYTHING can happen during tourney time. And I don't mean that Ashland will be the team going to Diddle. Several teams could get hot in the home stretch. East proved that just the other night. By the way, how many times have you seen the Rowan girls play this year? Just curious because it seems you know something that the rest of us don't.

I think several region teams might have something to say about that.

I agree 85 that Rowan is the team to beat this year having the region's toughest schedule and still compiling a 21-5 record. Pretty impressive. Ashland is playing well right now and could give them a run for their money, but Ashland would have to play an excellent game. I agree that taking care of the ball is most important, followed by stopping Rowan's transition game, and of course a team must shoot a good percentage. Of course these things are easier said than done. This being said, it this is not just a 2 team region with several teams able to go on a post season winning streak - East Carter and Russell are 2 of several teams that could make it to Diddle. Should be interesting........