Six in a Row!
Ashland Wins 16th Region Title
BY JAMES COLLIER
FOR THE ASHLAND BEACON
MOREHEAD It had been 72 years since a team had won six consecutive 16th Regional Championships.
Ashland decided it was time to restart the clock while rewriting some history along the way.
After leading by only two at the break, Ashland blitzed Boyd County to start the second half in the regional title game with a 17-6 third quarter outing that surged the Tomcats past the Lions for the first time this season in four meetings, 61-47. It was the first time in region history dating back to 1922, that a team won a regional crown after losing to the eventual region runner up three times in one season.
The win also claimed the Tomcats sixth consecutive regional crown and 37th in their storied history. The six titles match a mark set by only Ashland from 1924-29 and Clark County from 1947-52.
“Winning one is incredibly hard to do,” Ashland coach Ryan Bonner said. “It's a very tough task and it's just a credit to the guys in our locker room and their no quit mindset. I was just pleased with the team just to get this one with all the stuff we had to go through and the toughness of the schedule this season. It didn’t knock us off our feet and we weren’t thrown off balance by any adversity in front of us. We just continued to fight and grit through it.”
Ashland had fallen in overtime to Boyd County in the previous two meetings, including 56-55 in the district championship. But when all the chips were on the table, the 5-time defending champs trailed the rival for only 33 seconds when the Lions took the early 2-0 lead. Over the 96 total minutes in the three games, Ashland trailed for only 2:28 while taking out the top two teams in the region.
“It's a testament to the preparation of the staff and the team” Bonner said. “We were ultra-prepared in the tournament and was ready for anything we could possibly see for any of our opponents. I’ve told my team all season, the more prepared you are, the less pressured you will be.”
Ashland stoked a six-point lead early after an 8-0 run behind back-to-back Braxton Jennings triples. Zander Carter answered a Jacob Spurlock triple with one of his own to close the first and a 16-13 Ashland lead. Cam Davis pushed the Tomcats lead to seven with a triple midway through the second, but the Lions closed the half on a 5-0 run on a Rhett Holbrook three and an Alex Martin layup.
But the halftime break may have been the worst possible thing that could have happened for the Lions as the momentum they had built came to screeching halt. Ashland took its largest lead of the night at 31-23 with 5:38 to play in the third but the ensuing possession was one that Bonner called a game defining moment.
“The point when I thought that we had this game came when Rhett Holbrook drove on the baseline for a layup, Asher Adkins blocks it and gets possession of it,” Bonner said. “At that point we were up eight points. Asher pushes the ball up in transition and gets two feet in the paint, reverse pivots and hits Nate Freize for that big 3 to put us up 11. Boyd comes down and takes a wide one—I mean a wild three. We get the rebound and I started thinking, we are going to win this game.”
Freize finished with 16 points and eight rebounds in the championship and made a strong statement in pregame regarding the outcome of the game.
“I’ve never left this building without hardware and I don’t plan on leaving tonight without that trophy,” Freize said before the title game.
But Freize seems to shine in the biggest game of the season.
“I’ve played in that gym plenty of times and never lost in that gym,” Freize said. “I love playing there and playing in the big moment and every year we get to play our rival Boyd County which is meaningful. I’ve always been the person that likes to play in big games and I feel like I perform in those games than all the others.”
Carter led the Tomcats in scoring in all three games, including 16 in the championship to earn the Most Valuable Player honors for the second consecutive season.
“It's definitely something special but there’s a sense of gratitude that needs to be said about it and how grateful I have and not taking it for granted,” Carter said.
The Liberty commit put the final exclamation point on the Tomcats win with a thunderous dunk in the final minute of the contest that sent the Ashland fan-base into a frenzy as they began preparation for their sixth straight trip to Rupp Arena.
“You just say to yourself that winning six in a row is definitely a big accomplishment,” Carter said. “It's just a testament to all the guys in our locker room and our coaching staff and the culture we have is the most special part of the season. All the memories we make even off the floor. We are very close and very close-knit friend group off the floor and the definitely prevails us the more wins on the floor.”
Bonner, who served as the interim coach last season for the Tomcats, said this season’s regional title had a little extra meaning behind it.
“To get this one for me personally was special but we as a staff had a chance to put our stamp on things,” Bonner said. “We didn’t really get that opportunity last year because of the circumstances that we were put in. We just had to roll it out and let them go and navigate the storm.”
Ashland heads to Lexington and Rupp Arena Wednesday in a matchup with Region 2 Champion Lyon County and the leading scorer in state history, Travis Perry.
“They do a lot of things very well,” Bonner said of Lyon County. “It's not just Travis Perry. They have a great group around him and those guys have played together a long time. They are averaging 80 points a game and they are averaging 40 rebounds a game. They are the No. 1 rebounding team in the state. They’ve got good size, strength and length.”
Bonner said the Tomcats are going to approach their sixth trip to Rupp as a home game as they prepare to play in the most volatile environment they’ve faced all season.
“It's going to be huge because there are going to be a lot of Lyon County fans there and I’m not talking about the fans from Eddyville,” Bonner said. “There are going to be a lot of fans there excited to see Travis Perry and wanting to see them make a run. That’s not new to use as we spent most of the year on the road. We only had seven home games. We went to a lot of gyms and a lot of hostile environments where we weren’t very well liked. That’s been the case the last several years so, that’s not new to us.”
Ashland has lost in the opening round at state only once, falling to Covington Catholic in 2022. Ashland defeated Owensboro, 66-65 in the opening round last year before falling to the eventual state champion Warren Central, 64-48.