Scott County may be one of the younger teams in the state, but Tuesday night the Cardinals played with composure beyond their years.
The No. 7 team in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to defeat host Eastern 56-51.
“To get behind to David (Henley)’s team by 14 (at halftime) and come back and win is almost impossible. … David’s teams are so deliberate and so disciplined,” said Scott County’s Billy Hicks, the state’s all-time winningest coach. “I’m really proud of our team.”
GALLERY: Scott County vs. Eastern
Sophomore guard Cooper Robb, who tallied a team-high 18 points, capped the Cardinals’ comeback with his layup with 1:03 to play. Scott County (26-3), which started three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior, outscored Eastern 8-0 over the final 3:02 as the Eagles missed six of their final seven shots.
That was a far cry from the way Eastern (15-10) began the game. The Eagles hit 12 of their first 14 shots to open up a sizable lead.
They hit 8 of 10, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, in the first quarter to lead 22-13, then connected on their first four shots of the second period.
Caleb Williams’ drive and dunk over a defenseless Cardinal made it 31-16 with 5:49 left in the first half.
Eastern eventually pushed its lead to 16 (35-19) and were on top by 14, 35-21, at the break.
“They yanked us all over the floor, just moving the ball – we had a hard time guarding them,” Hicks said. “I don’t know what we thought. We’re young, we beat them earlier (72-60 Dec. 23 in the Woodford County Invitational), I guess we thought we were just going to come in here and beat them again. (But) we got a rude awakening that first half.”
Scott County started the second half with an 11-2 run to get back in the game. The Cardinals got as close as four late in the third quarter before the Eagles pushed their advantage to seven (45-38).
Chance Moore’s driving layup 36 seconds into the fourth period extended Eastern’s lead to nine (47-38). However it was pretty much all Scott County from there.
Robb had a personal 8-0 run, when he sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a putback, to quickly cut the Eagles’ lead to one. It was still that with a little over a minute to play when Robb drove in for the go-ahead bucket.
Freshman forward Michael Moreno’s layup, off a nifty tip pass from senior Clem Damron, with 25 seconds left extended the Cardinals’ lead to three.
Kobey Jones had his 3-point try blocked on Eastern’s ensuing possession, but he got fouled on the rebound with 8.7 seconds to play. Jones missed the first, then after a timeout, missed the second on purpose.
Scott County freshman guard Bryce Long then hit two free throws with 7 seconds left to seal it.
The Eagles, who shot 66.7 percent in the first half, were just 6 for 18 (33.3 percent) from the field in the second half.
“We started falling in love with jump shots in the second half,” said Henley, whose team was also 0 for 4 from 3-point range after halftime. “The first half we had a nice mix of inside and out, but in the second half we just started taking the first jump shot that came along and it came back to bite us in the end.”
Moore tallied a game-high 21 points while Jones added 14 for the Eagles, who also had 11 of their 20 turnovers after intermission, and were outrebounded 30-21.
“We showed what we can do in the first half, we just have to have the discipline, the mental toughness to do it for two halves,” Henley said.
| Scott County | 13 | 8 | 17 | 18 | — | 56 |
| Eastern | 22 | 13 | 10 | 6 | — | 51 |
Scott County (26-3) – Long 9, Robb 18, Covington 3, Moreno 8, Watts 8, Damron 4, Allen 6.
Eastern (15-10) – Wyche 4, Moore 21, Jones 14, Williams 5, Rushin 7.
3-point goals – Robb 3, Jones 2, Moore 2, Covington 1, Long 1, Rushin 1.