Five in a Row!
Ashland Defeats Boyd County for Region Title
James Collier
The Ashland Beacon
Give me five!
Make it five in a row for the Tomcats after they handed out a 73-51 spanking of Boyd County in the 16th Region Championship at Johnson Arena Tuesday night. It is the second such streak in the history of the story-rich program as the Tomcats led wire-to-wire in the title affair.
Zander Carter paced the Tomcats with 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds to earn the tournament MVP honors. Nate Frieze dumped in 17 points off the bench while going 8 of 9 from the field with several of his easy looks coming off feeds from Rheyce Deboard who dished out nine dimes to go with his 16 points as both joined Carter on the All-Tournament team.
Ashland raced out to a 10-2 lead behind a pair of Carter triples and a Tristin Davis layup. Ashland’s lead grew to double figures soon after on a Deboard triple and a Davis 3 to end the quarter and gave the Tomcats a commanding 24-6 edge.
Tucker Conway splashed home a triple to give the Tomcats a 21-point lead to open the second quarter, but the Lions could only trim off four points before the break as Ashland held a 39-22 lead at the half.
Boyd County mounted a surge to start the second half with a Rhett Holbrook bucket to put things in motion and an Alex Martin layup midway through the frame to pull the Lions to within nine. Ashland answered out of the timeout with a pair of layups and a Frieze trifecta to put the Tomcats back in front by 15.
Deboard and Frieze worked the pick-and-roll to perfection in the final stanza as the give-and-go with 5:37 to play by Frieze pushed the lead over 20 the rest of the way while the Lions struggled to close the gap with a 1 of 25 night from beyond the arc.
Davis rounded out the double-digit scoring for the Tomcats with 10 while earning All-Tournament honors. Asher Adkins grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. Holbrook paced the Lions with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Martin added 10.
Cole Hicks, Jacob Spurlock and Martin represented Boyd County on the All-Tournament Team.
Ashland will meet Region 3 Champion Owensboro Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. in the Boys Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
ASHLAND 89 RUSSELL 65
Ashland left no doubt who the top team in maroon was after an 89-65 hammering of Russell in the regional semifinals.
Zander Carter led the way with 25 points. Braxton Jennings tossed in 19 off the bench while going 5 of 6 from downtown. Tristin Davis and Rheyce Deboard added 14 each with Davis tossing in four 3s as Ashland drained 15 as a team, which fell two shy of tying their record of 17 made 3s in a game.
Russell finished with four players in double figures led by Damon Charles 14 points. Elijah Neel and Tatum Fleming each had 13. Caleb Rimmer kicked in 12.
Charles and Rimmer were named to the All-Tournament Team for the Devils who closed their season at 26-7.
BOYD COUNTY 61 LEWIS COUNTY 58
OVERTIME
Boyd County needed another overtime thriller to punch its ticket back to the regional championship after outlasting Lewis County, 61-58.
Alex Martin led the Lions with 19 points off the bench while going 10 of 12 from the charity stripe to guide the Lions back to the championship contest. Cole Hicks added 13 points and Jacob Spurlock had 10 despite playing only 15 minutes of the contest while battling a foot injury.
Neither team could find separation in the first half after the game went to the half knotted at 29-29. Boyd County took a four-point led to the final stanza of regulation but would score only five points in the final eight minutes as Lewis County tied the affair at 48-48 on a Trey Gerike and-1 with 44 seconds to play.
Boyd County led 57-55 with 90 seconds to play in the extra period, but Lewis County would get no closer than a 57-57 tie with 1:06 to go. Lewis County had the basketball while down two in the final 30 seconds but their 28th turnover in the contest sealed the win for Boyd County.