“We are nine deep and all of them can play.” –Martin County Coach Jason James
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PIKEVILLE — Martin County is heading to the state All “A” Classic. The Cardinals caged the defending state champion Pikeville Panthers 72-70 in the 15th Region All “A” championship Saturday at Appalachian Wireless Arena.
Martin County Coach Jason James’s outfit won back-to-back games to advance to the final for the first time in the school’s history. The Cardinals tamed the Paintsville Tigers 70-51 in the opening round Jan. 10, then routed the East Ridge Warriors 97-69 in the semifinal Friday.
“I’m super excited for our kids and our community,” Coach James said. “Our school’s first-ever All ‘A’ regional championship feels really good.”
Fans made their way to Pikeville to support the Cardinals in Saturday’s championship game. Arena staff said Martin County had “the largest crowd of the week … twice the crowd of the other teams.”
The stage was set—Martin County vs. Pikeville.
Pikeville had knocked Martin County out of the 21-22 All “A” regional semifinal 69-47 and the 2021-22 15th Regional Tournament semifinal 71-46. But this night would be different.
Pikeville started the game in a box and 1 with a chaser on junior Luke Hale. The Cardinals came out pressing, wanting to speed the game up, forcing Pikeville into four quick turnovers.
Matt Linville got the Cardinals on the board with a tip-in on a missed shot at the 7:24 mark. Linville struck again at the 6:16 mark to put the Cardinals up 4-1.
Eli Johnson of Pikeville scored at the 5:04 mark to give Pikeville its first field goal knotting the score 4-4.
With 3:32 to go, Jacob Sturgell drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key, putting the Cards up 8-4. On the next play Linville tickled the twine for a 3-pointer to make it 11-6.
Hale got on the board for his first basket off a steal at the 1:54 mark to push the Cardinal lead to 13-6.
Pikeville’s Rylee Samons drained a 3-pointer to close the gap to 13-9. The Panthers went on a 7-2 run at the end of the first quarter to cut the lead to 15-13 going into the second quarter.
Brayden McKenzie started the second frame off by knocking down a deep 3-pointer from the corner to put the Cardinals in front 18-13.
Hale picked up his second foul at the 6:40 mark, and Peyton Davis came off the bench to hit back-to-back 15-foot floaters to put the Cardinals up 23-21.
The lead went back and forth during the whole second quarter. Dray Duff scored on a drive to put the Cardinals up 30-29 with eight seconds to go. With 2.2 seconds on the clock, Pikeville took the ball side out and threw a long pass over top to Samons, who scored at the buzzer to put Pikeville up 31-30 going in at the half.
Pikeville outscored the Cardinals 18-15 in the second.
Notable first-half stats: Samons had 17 points to lead Pikeville and Linville scored 10 to lead the Cardinals. Pikeville had 19 rebounds to the Cardinals’ nine. Martin County had four turnovers and Pikeville had nine.
The Cardinals trailed most of the third quarter, and the Panthers went up 45-38 at the 3:33 mark for their biggest lead of the game.
The Cardinals fought back on four straight points by McKenzie. Blake Maynard hit a bucket to tie the score 47-47 with 1:24 on the clock. The final score at the end of three was Pikeville 52, Martin County 49.
McKenzie kept the Cards close, scoring eight of his 20 points in the third.
The Panthers won the quarter 21-19.
Pikeville jumped out to a five-point lead 63-58 with 4:27 to go in the final quarter. Coach James changed his defense to a 1-3-1 zone. Pikeville made two straight turnovers, leading to McKenzie scoring two straight layups to cut the lead to 63-61.
Duff dished out a beautiful pass to Linville at 2:41 to put the Cardinals up 64-63. Pikeville answered with Samons draining a 3-pointer to put the Panthers back up 66-64.
Jacob Sturgell scored at the 2:05 mark to tie the game 66-66.
Pikeville was called for an illegal screen with 1:35 showing on the clock, and Martin County got possession of the ball. The Cards pulled the ball out to use the clock. Hale was fouled with 43 seconds to go and knocked down both free throws to put the Cards up 68-66.
Samons drove to the basket, missed and Pikeville fouled Hale to stop the clock with 17.8 seconds remaining. Hale sunk both free throws to widen the lead to 70-66.
The Cardinals fouled Samons with 9.9 seconds to go. Samons made the first free throw to cut the lead to 70-67. He missed the second shot and Pikeville got the ball back on a jump ball possession.
With 8.4 seconds to go, Pikeville set up a play for a 3-pointer, but Samons missed. Linville was fouled and hit both free throws to put the game out of reach at 72-67 with 4.4 seconds left.
Samons hit a long full-court shot for a 3-pointer to set the final score as time expired on Martin County’s first-ever All “A” regional championship.
Coach James talked about his team overcoming Pikeville’s box and 1 on Hale.
“I knew they were going to do something like that on Luke, but it didn’t make it easier for them,” said James. “Other guys stepped up, and that’s why I think we have a really good team. We are nine deep and all of them can play.”
Notable stats for the game. Martin County went 7-for-7 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and 13-for-17 from the line for the game. Pikeville was 10-for-14 from the line. Pikeville finished with 12 turnovers and Martin County had six. Pikeville out-rebounded the Cardinals 34-19.
McKenzie poured in 20 points, 17 coming in the second half, to lead Martin County. Linville followed with 14 points. Hale managed double-figure scoring with 12 points despite the constant on-ball pressure and off-ball pass denial. Duff showed up with nine points, Davis added seven points, Sturgell scored six and Maynard contributed four points.
Samons led all scorers with 36 points for Pikeville, Charlie Fitzer finished with 16 points, Johnson added 10, Ian Onkst netted six and Josh Hughes contributed two.
The Cards will face 14th Region All “A” champion Hazard Independent Dragons in the state tournament Thursday, Jan. 26 at Eastern Kentucky University’s McBrayer Arena. Gametime is set for 10 a.m. and Martin County has called off school for the day.
“Hopefully we can go to EKU and make a good showing,” said James. “Harlan Independent is the favorite to win the All ‘A’ state.”
Martin County is on a 12-win streak and improved to 14-2.
Cards tame Tigers in opening round
Martin County had just come off a 97-57 thrashing of the Paintsville Tigers five days earlier when the two met again Jan. 10 in the 15th Region All “A” Classic opening round. The Cardinals were coming in on a 9-game winning streak. Same teams, different venue, same ending: Martin County tamed the Tigers 70-51 to advance to the semifinal.
Both teams got off to a slow start. The Cardinals seemed a little reserved playing on the Appalachian Wireless Arena floor, but Luke Hale got the offense going with a bucket at the 6:39 mark.
Paintsville was up 5-2 with 4:19 to go in the quarter. Dray Duff drained a 3-pointer at the 4:11 mark to put the Cards up 5-4.
Paintsville showed much more patience in this game, working the ball around and using up the clock to get a good shot. The score was knotted 8-8 at 2:15 before Hale struck 16 seconds later with a 3-pointer and a steal for a putback to go on a 5-0 run. Paintsville fought back to pull within five at 15-10. Kinner fired up a 40-footer with 5.5 seconds to go and knocked the bottom out to close the Martin County lead to 15-13 at the end of one.
AJ James knocked down a 3-pointer at the 6:57 mark of the second quarter to put Paintsville up 16-15. Matt Linville went on a 4-0 run with a putback and a two-hand dunk at the 6:06 mark to put the Cardinals back up to stay 19-16. Hale knocked down his second 3-pointer to extend the lead to 22-16. Paintsville went on a 4-0 run to cut it to 22-20, but this was as close as the Tigers would get. The Cardinals won the second quarter 15-11 to take a 30-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Notable stats at the half had Hale leading the Cardinals with 10 points and Fugate of Paintsville with 11 points. The teams had 18 rebounds each.
The Cardinal offensive machine got going in the third and the Cardinals turned up the defensive pressure, causing Paintsville to turn the ball over, leading to layups on the other end. The Cardinals pushed their lead out 52-36 at the end of three.
Both teams played evenly in the fourth quarter exchanging baskets. Martin County won the fourth quarter 18-15 to keep their winning streak alive at 10 straight.
Notable Stat for the game: Paintsville had 21 turnovers and Martin County had 11.
Hale led the Cardinals with 23 points, McKenzie and Sturgell added 12 each, Duff finished with 10, Peyton Davis netted seven, Linville added four and Blake Maynard scored two.
Jase Kinner led Paintsville with 17, Conner Fugate netted 16, Cole and Woods added six points each, AJ James scored five, and A. Ward contributed one point.
Martin County routs East Ridge in semifinal
Martin County Cardinals routed the East Ridge Warriors 97-69 in Friday’s semifinal round of the All “A” Classic.
Brayden McKenzie and Luke Hale went bang-bang for two deep 3-pointers to start the game out 6-0. The Cardinals went on a 10-0 run, shooting the lights out, going 5-for-5 from the field. The Cards were up 20-2 with three minutes to go in the first quarter and 26-10 at the end of one.
Late in the second quarter, Hale drained a deep three on an assist from Dray Duff for his 1,000th career point. The junior finished the half with 22 points knocking down four 3-pointers.
The Cardinal offensive machine was clicking as Martin County went up 58-33 at the half.
East Ridge had no answer for the Martin County pressure defense and committed seven turnovers in the first half.
The Warriors never adjusted to the pace of the game as the running Cardinals got their fast break going, beating the Warriors down the floor and scoring layups at will.
Stats for the first half had the Cardinals tickling the twine for six 3-pointers. A lot of players saw action in the half with nine players breaking into the scoring column. The Cardinals out-rebounded the Warriors 22-8.
The third quarter started with Matt Linville and Jacob Sturgell scoring on two fast-break baskets to put the Cardinals up 66-35. Linville got loose for a two-hand dunk at the 5:50 mark to put the Cardinals up 68-35.
Linville scored eight of his 14 points in the third quarter to help the Cardinals to an 85-52 lead going into the fourth.
The Martin County offensive machine slowed in the fourth as Coach Jason James turned to his bench early. All players saw action in this frame with 10 players scoring.
East Ridge outscored the Cardinals in the final frame 17-12 but fell short as the Cards closed out the win.
“I’m just really happy for our kids,” Coach James said. “They have worked hard to get into this position and are playing great basketball right now. We have a great chance against a really good team in Pikeville.”
Four Martin County players scored in double figures. Hale led with a game-high 25 points for the Cardinals, McKenzie netted 16, and Matt Linville and Jacob Sturgell each finished with 14 points. Duff, Devan Maynard and Ethan Ferrell each added six points, Blake Maynard scored five, Peyton Davis contributed three and Bryson Dials chipped in two.
Braxton Stanley led East Ridge with 23 points, Brad Howell had 16 points, Keene Jackson netted nine, Kendrick scored seven, Mason finished with six, Puckett contributed four, and Adkins and Ward each flipped in two.
Notable stats for the game saw Duff make the KHSAA record books, dishing out 20 dimes in a single game to tie with Corey Bullock of West Jessamine and David Lowry of Henderson County for the second-all-time highest number. The Cardinals connected on nine 3-pointers, with Hale draining five. Martin County won the boards 38-24 with 18 offensive rebounds. The Cardinals had only eight turnovers for the game.
