Sweet Sixteen: First Round; Session Two

Game One

Paintsville 93 - Jeffersontown 87

I thought they might have to examine the Rupp Arena floor for scorch marks after this barn burner. You can throw all sorts of sports cliches at this ballgame -- barn burner, track meet -- whatever you want. These two teams attacked the basket and had some dead eye shooters.

I'm guessing that J-town's Coach Jeff Morrow never dreamed that his team could shoot 52.2% in the first round and lose. They were 35 for 67 and scored 87 points, but will be packing their bags and heading back to the Louisville Metro.

No one doubted that these two teams would play at a pace faster than a field full of Secretariats because Paintsville averaged 81.3 points a game, and J-town posted 68.5 points a game. In today's 32 minute ballgame they scored 180 points. That's 5.6 points a minute. If it was a college basketball game, they could've turned off the shot clock because the time keeper would've worn out the reset button. Fans could not take their eye off of the game because they might miss a couple of possessions in a flash.

Heck, I got out of breath just watching it.

Paintsville's Landon Slone is one of the best shooters I've seen in a long time. His instinct is to score, and he's a great stop-and-pop shooter, and can hit jumpers from any range and any spot on the floor. He stymied J-town's defenders and finished the game with 35 points.

The Chargers' Thomas Jackson (where have I heard that name before?) led the way with 24 points. He averaged 10 points a game during the season, but he exploded in Wednesday's game. Everybody scored a lot of points.

Paintsville controlled the ballgame. It's not a matter of controlling tempo because both teams enjoy a fast paced game. The Tigers outplayed J-town in this style of game. It would be dangerous to try to open up a game on Paintsville because they have great shooters, great ball handlers, and they will attack the basket on anyone.

It was an exciting game because down the stretch J-town kept it close and cut the lead to two, 86-84, with 1:12 left in teh game. Of the four games played on Wednesday, this was by far the best. Both teams played great and played like they belonged in Rupp Arena. I believe it's the best game I've seen all year.

Game Two

Covington Holmes 64 - Bardstown 44

Simply put, Bardstown was over matched. I have a feeling that the phrase applies to a lot of teams that played Holmes this year. The Bulldogs are loaded with great athletes and are very well coached. It's not common to see slam dunks in a high school game, but on Wednesday night the Bulldogs threw down three against the Tigers from Bardstown.

Holmes also keyed on senior point guard, Corey Hall, who averages 13.6 points a game. He had a miserable night with just three points and six turnovers. Bardstown had 29 turnovers for the game. The Bulldogs had 16 steals.

At one point Holmes had a 29 point lead on the Tigers, and Coach David "I'm Not Don" Henley called off -- pardon the pun -- the dogs in the fourth quarter. He could've really embarrassed the young Bardstown team, which has only two seniors on the roster.

I'd watch out for this Holmes team. Everyone up here is talking about Lexington Catholic and Mason County, but Holmes is absolutely loaded with good players. They are big, strong, and incredibly athletic. They have a balanced attack, and I love to watch them play. If them and Lex. Cath tangle in the semifinal, it could be an exciting Saturday morning match up.

Elijah Pittman finished with 10 points for the Bulldogs and had one very impressive dunk. He also has a nice outside shot. He's listed at 6'5" but can elevate like a rocket. Ricardo Johnson led with 11 points and six rebounds.

Jordan Hickman had 14 points for Bardstown. The Tigers lose Corey Hall next season, but they should be a solid team in the Fifth Region with a roster full of seniors.

Holmes advances to meet Paintsville at 1:30 on Friday. That should be a tilt.

OBSERVATIONS

Great Bands: Paintsville's band includes a xylophone. They opened with a great rendition of War's "Low Rider." They jammed on the drums and xylophone. J-town's band is excellent. I really liked it when they whipped out Lipps Inc.'s "Funky Town." They played it so well. Heck I thought everyone was going to leave Lexington for Funky Town about half way through the song. I guess I'm just going to talk about, talk about, talk about movin. If there's a championship for sweet Sweet Sixteen bands, these two have to be in the finals. Oh, wait, Central's band can hang with them, too.

Fun with Flavo-O-Rich: During a break in every game these dudes from Flavorich come out to center court with the biggest dang slingshot I've every seen. They send t-shirts flying into the upper reaches of Rupp Arena. They even hit a banner for one of the retired jerseys. I have some experience with one of those things. One of my neighbors in Hugh Poland Hall at WKU made a slingshot out of rubber hoses used to supply bunsen burners. They bombed people in the parking lot with water balloons. I just want to say that we weren't crazy enough to bomb WKU campus police with water balloons. We would NEVER do anything so irresponsible. To any WKU police reading this -- it was a really rainy night that night with some huge raindrops. If you want to investigate, my name is spelled C-H-R-I-S G-R-E-G-O-R-Y.

Best Student Section: Chris Gregory has posted all season that the Bardstown student section is the best. They are. They put the dukies on Tobacco Road to shame, and they don't do anything in bad taste, either. I love it when students surf in the crowd. It's a neat effect. I love them. I hate that they took the first round ouster because this group would be fun to have around.