BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PAINTSVILLE — Martin County Cardinals worked through a win drought in time to send Johnson Central packing 62-59 in the opening round of the 57th District Tournament Feb. 22.
Coach Jason James’ Cardinals, who had won 17 games in a row, including the 15th Region All “A” championship and an Elite 8 All “A” showing, found themselves on an eight-game losing streak entering last week’s tournament.
“All that’s behind us now,” James said. “We stuck together and worked our way through it. We are back on track now and ready to go.”
The Cardinals were in for the fight of their basketball lives at the Paintsville High gymnasium against powerhouse Johnson Central Eagles.
The Cardinal National knew it was a “winner moves on, loser goes home” affair as they crowded into the gym. They stayed on the edge of their seats as the game went down to the wire, with the Cardinals sneaking out and fending off the Eagles for a hard-fought win to keep the season alive.
Martin County and Johnson Central split games during the regular season, each defeating the other on their home court.
Johnson Central struck first to up 2-0. Jacob Sturgell got the Cardinals on the board on an assist from Dray Duff to even the score 2-2. The Cardinals came out in a 1-2-1 full-court press that seemed to catch Johnson Central a little off guard and force them to call a quick timeout with 6:46 to go in the quarter.
With 5:12 to go, Duff drove down the lane for a lay-up to tie the score 4-4. Luke Hale got a quick steal off the press to put the Cardinals up 6-4 and Hale struck again at the 4:22 mark to make it 8-6. Brayden McKenzie got in on the action to put the Cards up 10-6, then Peyton Davis entered the game and knocked the bottom out of a 3-pointer to put the Cards up 13-6. Davis got fouled driving to the basket and hit two free throws to give the Cardinals a 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Johnson Central went to work in the second quarter and held the Cardinals to eight points. Davis drained a three-pointer at 7:38 to put the Cards up 18-10. McKenzie knocked down a 3 and Luke Hale hit two free throws to give the Cardinals a 23-13 lead. Then the momentum shifted. The Cardinals went cold and Johnson Central tied the score 23-23 with 3:26 to go and took the lead 25-23 at the 2:50 mark. The Eagles went on a 15-0 run to take a 28-23 lead to the locker room at halftime.
The Cardinals fought back in the third to take the lead 37-36 at the 3:45 mark on a McKenzie three-pointer. Johnson Central tied it 39-39 with 2:13 left in the quarter.The Eagles went on to outscore the Cardinals 7-2 to regain the lead 46-41 going into the last quarter.
Hale drained a 3 at 7:44 to start the fourth. Freshman Devan Maynard got a putback to tie it 46-46. Martin County took the lead at the 7:02 mark 48-46 on a basket by Maynard. From there, the Cardinals kept the lead going up 54-48 on a 3 by Hale. Johnson Central fought back and the score was 62-59 Martin County with 20 seconds to go. The Eagles got the ball back and a chance to tie with 12 seconds to go but were called for a traveling violation.
“We knew going in, the Johnson Central game would be really tough,” said Coach James. “I thought we caught them off guard a little bit with our diamond press. They hadn’t seen that. It was a great back-and-forth game and we were able to step up and make some big plays in the fourth quarter when it mattered most.”
Hale led Martin County with 24 points, McKenzie followed with 17, Davis added eight, Duff and Maynard finished with five each, and Sturgell chipped in three points and led the Cardinals in rebounds with seven.
Austin Slone led Johnson Central with 24 points, David Fink added 14, Ryan Rose scored 11, Mason Lawson scored seven, and Brayden Shepard finished with three.
