The 2012 PNC/KHSAA Boys Sweet Sixteen® Basketball Tournament wraps up at Rupp Arena in Lexington with a 7 p.m. Central championship today, pairing the winners from this morning's semifinals:
-- Southwestern Warriors of Somerset vs. Trinity Shamrocks of Louisville, 9 a.m. Central
-- Oldham County Colonels of Buckner vs. Scott County Cardinals of Georgetown, 10:30 a.m. Central
Here were Friday's quarterfinal results:
Somerset Southwestern 67, Rowan County Vikings of Morehead 57
Louisville Trinity 62, George Rogers Clark Cardinals of Winchester 39
Oldham County 36, Knott County Central Patriots of Hindman 34
Scott County 61, John Hardin Bulldogs of Elizabethtown 40
And here were the first-round results from Wednesday and Thursday:
-- Rowan County 64, North Laurel Jaguars of London 46
-- Somerset Southwestern 52, Hopkinsville Tigers 41
-- Louisville Trinity 52, Bullitt East Chargers of Mount Washington 32
-- Winchester George Rogers Clark 56, Apollo Eagles of Owensboro 36
-- Oldham County 55, Bowling Green Purples 48
-- Knott County Central 71, Boone County Rebels of Florence 54
-- Scott County 59, Marshall County Marshals 43
-- Elizabethtown John Hardin 49, Johnson Central 36
Trinity leads 8-5 with 3:08 left in the first quarter.
ReplyDeleteTrinity leads 8-7 with 2:58 left in the first quarter.
ReplyDeleteI did not realize until this morning that Pulaski Southwestern is coached by Steve Wright, who led South Laurel to the 2005 State Championship. This certainly helps to explain why they've handled the pressure so well.
ReplyDeleteMichael Childers in today's Commonwealth Journal of Somerset: "Wright has already done so much in so little time as the Southwestern head coach, as the first-year Warrior coach brought Southwestern their first 12th Region title and now has the program in its first trip to the Final Four."
DeleteSouthwestern on a run right now. They lead 12-10 with 1:43 left in the 1st quarter. Trinity calls time.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching this game on iHigh, and the picture quality is quite good. But whoever is directing the broadcast believes in switching to a camera angle that is directly under the basket whenever anyone shoots the ball. This is very annoying, and now I know why no one else who covers basketball does it this way.
ReplyDeleteSW leads 12-11 after the first quarter.
ReplyDeleteSouthwestern's best player is a 5' 9" guard named David Kapinga. I think that is a Nigerian name, and he appears to be Nigerian, but various Google searches indicate that he is from Canada. I tried to figure out how he got from Canada to Somerset, but I could not do so.
ReplyDeleteKeaton Belcher @KeatonBelcher Close
DeleteGreat PG. #FrenchCanadian “@Rodski13: Capinga has gotten separation on everyone in this tournament, Trinity included.”
9:31 AM - 17 Mar 12
Jon Elrod @Rodski13 Close
Delete@KeatonBelcher Supposedly there's two more #FrenchCanadian players at East Ridge coming to Southwestern next year. Solid...
9:35 AM - 17 Mar 12
Trinity shot the lights out yesterday, but they are only 2-8 from three point range so far today.
ReplyDeleteSouthwestern leads 19-17 with 3:54 to go in the second quarter.
Southwestern's zone continues to frustrate Trinity, while Trinity's full court press has not yet broken down the Warriors. SW leads 21-17 with 2:38 before the half.
ReplyDeleteTrinity's best player -- and the favorite for Mr. Basketball in the Commonwealth -- is Nathan Dieudonne, a 6' 7" forward who is heading to Boston University. So far, he has 8 points and 4 rebounds, but he also has 2 fouls.
ReplyDeleteSW missed a bunch of shots in the last few minutes, and Trinity hit a three at the buzzer to cut the Warriors' lead to 1. SW leads 22-21 at the half.
ReplyDeleteAs we have seen throughout this tournament, the top teams in the Commonwealth suffer from an appalling inability to shoot the ball. In the first half SW went 7-25 (28 percent) from the field, while Trinity was 8-25 (32 percent). SW was only 6-10 from the line, while Trinity was only 3-6. Pretty sad shooting.
Bracken County's coach, doing color commentary on WFTM of Maysville, seems mystified by the poor shooting. "Too much dunking ... just don't put in the time ..."
DeleteMaysville's Soft 96 FM is doing its own broadcast from the tournament.
ReplyDeleteI see on the Twitter feed that the Trinity fans are whining about the officiating. I'm not really seeing a lot of that. To me, this has been a pretty simple story so far: SW has handled the press, controlled the tempo, and played a solid zone. Trinity spent much of the first half firing away from three-point range, but they only made 2-12 attempts.
ReplyDeleteDid you see this on the Twitter feed last night?
DeleteMike Fields @MikeFieldsNotes
Sweet Sixteen made an exception and announced to the crowd that Duke lost to Lehigh, and the fans gave the loudest cheer of the week
8:44 PM - 16 Mar 12
By the way, Southwestern totally messed up the end of the first half. The Warriors had the ball and a four-point lead with 40 seconds to go. But instead of simply holding the ball for the last shot, they went into their offense with about 24 seconds to go. Trinity stole the ball, went down and hit a three to cut their lead to one.
ReplyDeleteThey just had a commercial for Ale 8 on the KHSAA broadcast. That was kind of cool.
ReplyDeleteThey also have a "KFC in the Bucket" graphic that they put up whenever someone makes a free throw.
I'm waiting for the commercial where UPS comes on and talks about how high school basketball is much better in North Carolina.
SW has only five turnovers so far, and that's the biggest problem for Trinity -- which normally blows people out with its pressing defense.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who watched a lot of UK games in the 1990's, I would like to assure the Trinity fans that teams who live off of three-point shooting and full-court press can be beaten -- even if the officials call a fair game.
Charles Foster follows up his three at the end of the first half with another three at the beginning of the second half. Trinity leads 24-22 with 6:40 left in the third.
ReplyDeleteFoster makes another three. And then Dieudonne makes one. Suddenly Trinity is 5-15 from three-point range and they lead 30-24 with 5:31 left. Timeout Southwestern.
ReplyDeleteIt was always inevitable that Trinity would make some shots. Southwestern's real problem is that they simply cannot score. They are now 8-29 from the field, and only 2-10 from three-point range. Those are not shooting percentages that one associates with an upset.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's your ball game. SW still can't score, and Trinity hits another three-pointer to go up 33-24 with 4:40 left. SW calls another timeout.
ReplyDeleteBut wait! Trinity has gone cold, and SW is working the ball inside to Robby Lewis, a fairly large young man who focuses on making two-foot layups. This has sparked an 8-0 run for the Warriors, and Trinity now leads 33-32 with 2:13 left in the third.
ReplyDeleteThe SW band is playing the Florida State fight song during Trinity's timeout.
T. Craig Smith @tcraigsmith
DeleteNumber 3 for Southwestern is now my favorite player. He is a hoss cat
10:11 AM - 17 Mar 12
Per BluegrassPreps.com, 6-4, 272-pound center Robby Lewis is an all-state football offensive lineman who will play at Morehead State.
He was the only SW player who could do anything on the inside against Trinity's front line. He's 5-8 from the field; the rest of the team is 9-32.
DeleteOfficial's timeout with 1:18 left in the third. Trinity still leads 33-32.
ReplyDeleteDavid Kapinga, the point guard for SW who has handled Trinity's press very well so far, is only a sophomore. He appears to be a major talent.
Trinity is the better team, but their plan to attack SW's zone is mainly to shoot three's. Since they're only 6-19 from three-point range so far, that strategy has enjoyed only limited success.
The third quarter ends with Trinity holding a 36-33 lead. The Shamrocks have actually been fortunate that SW can't make any shots from the outside. The Warriors are only 2-11 from three-point range; if they could have done any better, the Rocks could be in real trouble.
ReplyDeleteOK, uniform note: SW's uniform looks almost exactly like Florida's home uniform -- white with orange numbers and blue trim. Trinity's uniforms are simply hideous: black with green numerals and some sort of futuristic font.
ReplyDeleteGame is stopped because of an injury to Kapinga, who appears to have been poked in the eye. Both teams have looked pretty sharp, but Trinity leads 43-37 with 5:39 in the game.
ReplyDeleteIf I coached Trinity, I would pull the ball out until SW came out of their zone.
Four minutes left. SW's offense has fallen apart with Kapinga on the bench because of his injury. Trinity is hitting three's from time to time (they are now 8-24 from behind the arc), and they lead 46-37.
ReplyDeleteTrinity makes itself even more popular in the Commonwealth by going into the Four Corners. But SW gets a turnover to cut Trinity's lead to 49-42 with 2:23 left.
ReplyDeleteKapinga still hasn't come back into the game.
Official's timeout with 1:43 left. Trinity leads 49-42. Unless they miss a whole lot of free throws, they will play for the state title tonight.
ReplyDeleteThey just pointed out that the likely final game tonight -- Trinity v. Scott County -- is a rematch of the final in 6A football. How depressing is that?
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty depressing.
DeleteHowever, if the All-A Classic lobby and Tea Party get together and bust up KHSAA basketball into multiple classes, that's going to be far, far more depressing.
DeleteFor the record, all of us here at the Heath Post are against busting up KHSAA basketball into multiple classes. In fact, I've said on multiple occasions that I think we should only have three or four classes in football.
DeleteOn the other hand, there has to be some way of dealing with Trinity, which has the ability to field a Jefferson County all-star team every year. We've already seen what they can do in football, where they have won the state championship 21 times since 1968. I don't think anyone -- other than Trinity fans -- wants to see that sort of dominance extended to basketball.
Up to this point, Trinity has respected Kentucky's norms with respect to basketball and baseball. And this year's team may represent an unusual development. If so, there is no need to panic. After all, last year's state title game was Christian County v. Rowan County.
Trinity finishes off a 56-47 victory that was never in that much doubt. To pull an upset in a game like this, the underdog must make shots, and SW just couldn't shoot at all. They went 16-47 from the field, and only 4-18 from three-point range.
ReplyDeleteWFTM is playing some Fine Young Cannibals during the break in games. I liked this band fine.
ReplyDeleteAfter a break for lunch, we're now watching the Scott Co./Oldham Co. game. Yet another low-scoring slugfest. Scott County leads 23-16 at the half.
ReplyDeleteOn December 8, 2011, Trinity went to Georgetown and whipped Scott County 90-77. But since then, the Cardinals have only lost one game to in-state competition, and they have looked very sharp in this tournament so far.
ReplyDeleteIf you put aside the question of whether every season is likely to be dominated by the recruiters at Trinity and Toyota, and just concentrate on the games at hand, then this tournament really should come down to Trinity and Scott County, who are plainly the two best teams in the state. I could see tonight's final being a real epic.
Anyway, it helps my predicting record. I had Trinity beating Scott County in the finals.
ReplyDeleteUniform note: These teams have great uniforms, as you would expect in dealing with traditional basketball powers from the Bluegrass. Oldham County is wearing white with Kentucky blue numerals and trim. Scott County is wearing red with white numbers and blue and white trim.
ReplyDeleteOldham County has "Oldham" printed in blue over its numerals. Scott County has "Scott" above the numeral and "County" underneath, like on the old Western Kentucky uniforms.
ReplyDeleteThis game's over, by the way. Scott is up 31-16 with 6:10 left in the third. Last year we had a bunch of upsets, but that didn't happen this year.
ReplyDeleteI will not be live-blogging the state title game tonight, as I have a previous commitment to watch a college game that will be played in Louisville.
ReplyDeleteScott County roared out to a 47-26 lead after three quarters, then eased up down the stretch for an easy 56-43 victory.
ReplyDeleteReprising and updating one of my all-time-favorite Heath Post posts, "Here is a list of high schools that won the state basketball championship but no longer exist:"
ReplyDelete1927: Millersburg Military Institute (closed in 2003)
1930: Corinth (consolidated into Grant County)
1937: Midway (consolidated into Woodford County)
1938: Sharpe (consolidated into North Marshall, which was later consolidated into Marshall County)
1939: Brooksville (consolidated into Bracken County)
1940: Hazel Green of East Bernstadt (consolidated into Laurel County, which was split in 1992 into North Laurel and South Laurel, and now an elementary school)
1941 & 1954: Inez (consolidated into Sheldon Clark)
1943: Hindman (consolidated into Knott County Central)
1946: Breckinridge Training (defunct)
1947: Maysville (absorbed into Mason County)
1948: Brewers (consolidated into South Marshall, which was later consolidated into Marshall County)
1952: Cuba (consolidated into Sedalia, which was later consolidated into Graves County)
1956: Carr Creek (consolidated into Knott County Central)
1959: North Marshall (consolidated into Marshall County)
1960: Louisville Flaget (closed in 1974)
1967: Earlington (consolidated into South Hopkins, which was later consolidated into Hopkins County Central)
1982: Laurel County (split in 1992 into North Laurel and South Laurel)
1959 All-Tournament Team:
DeleteDale Barker, Olive Hill
Julius Berry, Lexington Dunbar
Pat Doyle, Calvert City North Marshall
Lance Gish, Central City
Bert Green, Olive Hill
Jim Lampley, Calvert City North Marshall
Leland Melear, Louisville Manual
Don Ringstaff, Smithland Livingston Central
Ronnie Siers, Louisville Manual
Tom Thacker, Covington Grant
1959 first round:
DeleteNorth Marshall 90, Gallatin County 51
Maysville 78, Larue County 67
Covington Grant 72, Pikeville 67
Olive Hill 88, Smithland Livingston Central 78
Monticello 78, Bowling Green High Street 67
Lexington Dunbar 82, Sacramento 46
Louisville Manual 77, Central City 65
Breathitt County 76, Clay County 50
Quarterfinals:
North Marshall 75, Maysville 62
Olive Hill 85, Covington Grant 84
Lexington Dunbar 63, Monticello 51
Louisville Manual 66, Breathitt County 49
Semifinals:
North Marshall 67, Olive Hill 65
Louisville Manual 52, Lexington Dunbar
Third-place game:
Lexington Dunbar 88, Olive Hill 45
Championship:
North Marshall 64, Louisville Manual 63
Now that's a Saturday at the Sweet Sixteen!
DeleteHP readers might've heard that there is also some college basketball being played in the land. Murray State and Marquette are playing a game that ... well, man ... OK, you've seen terrific basketball sequences in Spike Lee-directed movies. Basically, Murray State and Marquette have been adlibbing one of those terrific Spike Lee-directed basketball sequences for the last two hours. There's 7:35 to play, and the Racers lead, 46-41.
ReplyDeleteMurray State is no homegrown product of western Kentucky. The terrific guard, Isaiah Canaan, is from Biloxi, Miss. The wunderkind head coach, Steve Prohm, is a Vienna, Va., native who went to high school in Georgia and then graduated from the University of Alabama. The only Kentuckian on the roster is a junior guard from Mayfield's Northside Baptist High School, Jordan Burge. He has played but a bit this season. No matter, Murray State has electrified this end of the state.
Delete6:03, and Marquette has closed to 46-45 ...
Marquette fans, incidentally, must be furious that their third-seeded Golden Eagles had to play this Murray State team as a 6 in Louisville for their second-round game.
DeleteMarquette 49, Murray State 48 ... 5:01 to play ...
Another Coach Prohm timeout ... second within one minute on the game clock. That's meaningful, because his willingness to sit on timeouts was an ongoing story of this season.
DeleteMarquette has surged ahead, 54-48, with 4:01 to go ... and now the media break on a Murray turnover ...
Rex Chapman @rexchapman Close
DeleteWith the exception of from 7:45pm until roughly 9:45pm, I could watch Murray St and Marquette play all day long.
6:04 PM - 17 Mar 12
It's just nuts this game is not for the Final Four.
DeleteWow. This is a totally, totally, totally easy-to-root-for Murray State team that is having its season end today. Marquette was very tough in this game. I think they'll beat Florida, if the Gators advance to the next round.
DeleteThank you, Racers. That was a superfun season.
Word.
Delete"After following the state playoffs so closely -- and enjoying them so much, even in a two-team season like this one -- it's a shame that the final has to be played in the shadow of UK's game with Iowa State."
ReplyDeleteState final scheduled to tip at 7 Central, five minutes after UK-Iowa State ...
My main man Darius Miller.
ReplyDeleteLedger Independent @LedgerSports
ReplyDeleteMedia timeout, Trinity leads Scott Co 25-18 w/ 2:49 to go in 2Q. Rocks hit 3s on last 3 poss, last two from Foster. 15-3 T run right now
7:43 PM - 17 Mar 12 via web · Details
Naje @PaulNajjar1
ReplyDeleteTrinity pulls away from Scott County with a 15-4 run in the last 4:30 of the first half to take a 31-20 halftime lead.
7:50 PM - 17 Mar 12
"The Sportsman's Creed," as printed on Page 32 of the 1960 Sweet Sixteen program (in the following four parts) ...
ReplyDeleteThe Player --
Delete1. He lives clean and plays hard. He plays for the love of the game.
2. He wins without boasting, he loses without excuses, and he never quits.
3. He respects officials and accepts their decisions without question.
4. He never forgets that he represents his school.
The Coach --
Delete1. He inspires in his boys a love for the game and the desire to win.
2. He teaches them that it is better to lose fairly than to win unfairly.
3. He leads players and spectators to respect officials by setting them a good example.
4. He is the type of man he wants his boys to be.
The Official --
Delete1. He knows the rules.
2. He is fair and firm in all decisions. He calls them as he sees them.
3. He treats players and coaches courteously and demands the same treatment for himself.
4. He knows the game is for the boys, and lets them have the spotlight.
The Spectator --
Delete1. He never boos a player or official.
2. He appreciates a good play, no matter who makes it.
3. He knows the school gets the blame or the praise for his conduct.
4. He recognizes the need for more sportsmen and fewer "sports."
I confess to not living up to the code for the Spectator.
DeleteNaje @PaulNajjar1
ReplyDeleteFoster now 6-7 as his layup gives Trinity its biggest lead 37-23 with 3;39 to go in 3rd Q
8:16 PM - 17 Mar 12
Ryan Epling @bigeps
ReplyDeleteTrinity 49, Scott County 36 after 3. Manning has 24 points
8:28 PM - 17 Mar 12
Jason Frakes @kyhighs
ReplyDeleteScott County appears to have been awarded a point it didn't score ... or maybe not; confusion reigns http://blogs.courier-journal.com/khs/
8:32 PM - 17 Mar 12
Ryan Turner @butkus683
ReplyDeleteDown 24, Scott County cheering section yells, "You recruit!" Really? #sweet16 #blowout
8:39 PM - 17 Mar 12
Bailey Sayre @BaileySayre
Trinity just chanted next ones baseball. I think not! @colesayre @CommandoLando2 @CGuffey12 @darrinlaswell
8:48 PM - 17 Mar 12
Final: Trinity 71, Scott County 53.
ReplyDelete