BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PIKEVILLE — Martin County fans are feeling a wave of pride this week after sweeping the All “A” tournament. The Cards (12-2) faced Paintsville (5-7) in the final round of the All “A” tournament Friday night at the Appalachian Wireless Arena. An unforgettable 41-point performance from Parker Watts lifted the Cards over the Tigers 68-51 for a trip to the state tournament in Owensboro.
The game began at a high tempo with guard Peyton Davis pushing the ball up the floor to Bryson Dials for a lay-in.
The Cards took a 5-2 lead after Dials hit Martin County’s only 3 of the night. Coming into this match-up, Martin County was averaging 10 three-pointers per game.
“People say we do this or don’t do that,” Coach Jason “JJ” James said of the lower-than-average perimeter numbers. “We can win in the high-scoring games or low-scoring games.”
Devan Maynard scored his first two points of the night with a fadeaway bank shot in the paint.
Driving into a Tiger defender and drawing the and-one, Watts scored his first points with almost five minutes already ticked off the clock.
The Cards would be up as much as 14 in the second quarter. The Tigers went on a 7-0 run to end the half after Watts picked up his third foul.
With Paintsville pulling within five coming out of the half, Coach James put a full-court press on that spelled trouble for the blue and white.
“Our guys lock in and can guard anyone in the region when they want to,” said James. “We force a lot of turnovers. It’s a balancing attack. We’re doing something right. We do a lot of good things that go unnoticed sometimes.”
Peyton Davis hounded the Tigers and came out on the night with five steals.
With Brayden Estep crashing the boards, it allowed his teammates to speed the game up.
Martin County entered the final stanza with “state” on the brain.
Up seven points, Watts went to work attacking the rim with dunk after dunk. The Tigers had no answer for the high-flying electric guard.
He found Maynard cutting through the paint for a 49-38 lead.
On the ensuing play, Maynard picked a Tiger pocket and drove the length of the floor to force a Paintsville timeout.
Martin County established their dominance coming out of the huddle.
On a Tiger drive to the basket, Dials blocked a shot attempt and found Maynard at midcourt.
The Cardinal QB1 floated a pass off the backboard to a sprinting Watts who flushed it home to bring fans out of their seats and drop jaws in awe.
It seemed to be the soul crusher for Paintsville as the Tigers could never get it back under single digits.
“The driving lanes were there. I made my way through and got to the rim,” Watts explained his stellar night. “Sometimes you just go with the flow, go for what’s working for you. I’m playing with an amazing group of boys that want to win. They don’t take losses easy and we’re always ready to get back in the gym.”
He finished with an extraordinary 41 points and was 17-24 from the floor. He had eight rebounds, two assists and one block.
As a team, the Cardinals shot 59.6% from the field and dominated the boards 34-15.
Dials fired in 15 points, grabbed two rebounds, dished out three assists and had two steals.
Maynard stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, eight boards, four assists, two blocks and two steals.
“It’s like winning it the first time for me,” Maynard commented on the title. “This team, we’re like brothers. We’re always together.”
Davis had a well-rounded game with four points, six rebounds, five steals and one assist.
Estep led the team with 10 rebounds in addition to one block.
“We locked in and executed,” Estep said after the win. “There’s no other feeling like this to win it for the hometown.”
Senior Skyler Morrison believes this team can go the distance.
“We’ve been working hard all season,” Morrison said. “All we’ve done is practice. Nobody deserves it more than us. We’re making a name for ourselves and a lot more people are going to hear about us.”
Coach James said of bringing home the trophy, “I’m super excited. This is one of the games that you know when you start the season that you want to play in.
“We got here last year, and we lost in the championship,” he added. “We wanted to get back and I’m just so happy for the guys. They’re a great bunch of kids. You never know when these opportunities are going to present themselves and we try to live in the moment.”
Martin County will face the defending KHSAA state champion Lyon County (11-4) on Thursday at the Owensboro Sportscenter. Tipoff is set for 8:30 a.m.
