Hot start, hotter finish pushes Adair County past Marshall County in Boys’ Sweet 16
A hot shooting start and a scorching finish helped propel Adair County into the state quarterfinals Wednesday night at Rupp Arena.
The Indians (28-7) made their first four 3-point attempts — all on consecutive trips to close the first quarter — in a 72-55 win over Marshall County in the first round of the UK HealthCare Boys’ Sweet 16. They’ll play Lyon County at 1:30 p.m. Friday for a shot at the semifinals.
Isaiah Cochran, Dawson Gilbert and Blane Bardin each knocked in 3-pointers, uninterrupted by Marshall County, for a 9-0 run that dug Adair out of an early hole. Gilbert added the fourth to put the Indians up 18-9 through one. The Marshals (25-7) pulled within five late in the second but the 1st Region champs never got closer in the remainder.
“If it was a one- or two-day prep, I’m not sure we’d have been able to beat ’em,” said Indians coach Deron Breeze. “But we had 10 days to prep. They’ve got some of the best defense we’ve seen.”
Coming in, Breeze wanted his team to get underneath the Marshals’ defense and attack from the baseline. They heeded the call, turning several backdoor cuts into buckets and leveraging their footwork to displace defenders under the rim. Connor Loy (11) finished a few points shy of his team-leading 17.5 points per game but dealt eight assists, several to teammates running east to his west.
Cochran was not too far behind with seven assists. He had 16 points to lead Adair, which finished 9-for-17 from long range.
“We’ve got a lot of great shooters on the team,” Breeze said. “Sometimes we’ll hit, sometimes we’ll miss, but we came out and hit tonight.”
Lane Grant ended up leading the Indians in long-range makes after missing his only shot attempt in the first half. He nailed three corner triples in a span of four Adair possessions to close the third quarter, pushing the Indians’ lead to 61-44 entering the fourth. They led by as much as 23 at the end.
“I was a little nervous in the beginning, and all my coaches told me to just go out there and have fun,” said Grant, who was so struck by the moment earlier Wednesday that he vomited a couple of times.
“We had a walk-through yesterday and teachers were telling us as we were leaving, ‘Soon as y’all left, little kids at the primary center were throwing up,’ so I was kind of afraid that was him,’” Breeze said. “But he said it was just nerves. He got rid of ’em by the fourth quarter.”
Lyon look-ahead
Adair County is in the Boys’ Sweet 16 for the sixth time and first since 2009. The Indians haven’t advanced past the quarterfinals since 1955, when it finished as the state runner-up to Hazard.
To go further this year, they will have to beat a team to whom they lost by 50 during the last week of the regular season. The Indians led 16-14 after a quarter on Lyon County’s Senior Day; they lost 98-48.
“About 3:50 to go in the second quarter, I think it was 23-22 and it just kind of snowballed on us from there,” Breeze said. Cochran fouled out with five minutes left in the third quarter and Loy got an “uncharacteristic technical,” neither development beneficial to the Indians’ upset bid in Eddyville.
The Lyons, led by Mr. Basketball winner and UK signee Travis Perry, nearly got nipped in the first round by Ashland Blazer. Breeze in a pre-tournament conference call deemed Lyon County the favorite and held firm to that opinion after his team’s win.
“That’s who we want to play, we just gotta handle the pressure,” Breeze said. “I thought today Ashland did a great job. … Coach (Ryan) Perry, he don’t want another game like he had today. He’s gonna try and knock us out early if he can.”
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