Sweet Sixteen Quartefinals; Session Two

Shelby County 53 - Hazard 50

Anyone who has read my posts knows that I'm pulling for the Rockets to win the state championship. I have ties to that community and am a long time fan of Shelby County.

Hazard jumped out to an early lead, and Shelby County played a terrible second quarter, scoring only seven points. The Rockets played a 3-2 zone that overplayed on the wings trying to force Hazard to go inside. Hazard's Josh Whittaker, who is a fantastic sophomore, stepped his scoring and had a 11 points at halftime.

Hazard had a 30-20 lead after holding Shelby County to five second quarter points.

Shelby County responded by playing a nearly perfect third quarter. They hit their shots and quickly cut the lead to 30-29. In fact, Hazard didn't score until the 2:40 mark of the quarter. I noticed that Coty Minnis hurt his foot and actually had his shoe off while on the bench. He was for a couple of minutes but returned before the end of the quarter. Shelby tied it at 33 with Tim Sanford's three pointer.

The Rockets outscored them 18-5 in tthe third and had a 38-35 lead.

In the fourth the Rockets expanded the lead to 46-37, but the Bulldogs had one more bite left in them. They roared back to within two, 50-48. Shelby County hit important free throws down the stretch, and kept Hazard from capitalizing on two critical possessions at the end of the game.

Shelby County advances to the semifinals for the first time since Charles Hurt led them to the championship in 1978.

OBSERVATIONS

Who Shot the Sheriff: Paintsville's band is the first one I've seen that features steel drums. I used to live in Miami, Florida, and never saw one down there. They played "Low Rider" by War the other night, and on Friday night they played "I Shot the Sheriff." I guess they probably don't do that song when the team travels to Harlan County.

Lexington Traffic Update: You know those little stick figure people and pets that people stick on the back windows of their mini-vans? In Lexington, those things are kill flags. Crosswalks are target zones. People gripe about Louisville traffic to me, but at least Louisville traffic moves. It moves at a break-neck pace, but you're going to get where you're going unless you die. I read a story in the "Hurled-Liter" that a woman gave birth in her car on Broadway in Lexington. What the paper didn't tell is that the child was conceived, gestated, and born in the same traffic jam.

Hanging Up the Whistle: Paintsville's coach, Mike Runyon, is retiring. His career ended when the horn sounded on their loss to Holmes in the quarterfinals. When one of his players complained to the officials the other night, he got the attention of the player and just tapped the side of his own head with one finger, telling the young man to think. That's great.

B.G.'s D.G.: Congrats to Bowling Green's Coach D.G. Sherrill for being named Fourth Region Coach of the Year. He's proof that coaching goes beyond the court and into young men's hearts.

T.P. Scott Update: Mr. Scott from Adair County survived game number 666. No seven headed monster or anything else out of The Revelation. He's moved on and closing in one #675. That's 675 Sweet Sixteen games in-a-row.