According to sports journalists asked by the Courier Journal, North Hardin was the top favorite to win Region 5. According to the sports journalist of the Community Voice, asked only by his wife, they were not. First were wrong, second was right, as the Indians woke up after the first half and demolished the Trojans.
The start of the Indians was slow, insecurities, turnovers, missed shots. It looked like the last minutes of the district final against Taylor, and after three minutes the Adair boys were trailing 0-9. Then Connor Loy made the first two points and the chase started. From a 13-18 after the first quarter the Indians came up to a 24-27 at halftime. Then obviously the team felt the breeze in the locker room and the Trojans felt the storm on the court.
After a minute the Indians took the lead and extended it, and the highly rated Trojans didn’t have any chance anymore. The Indians led 40-31 after the third quarter and ended the game with a comfortable 64-39.
The stats show how bad the first half was and how good the second, as the Indians scored in total just 51% field goals (51 attempted/26 made), 35.3% three-pointers (17/6) and had a pretty bad free throw rate of only 60% (10/6). Convincing, especially in the second half, were the rebounds with a total of 35, best rebounder were Isaiah Cochran and Connor Loy with 8 each, Brayton Coomer with 7, Lane Grant with 5, Carter White with 4, Camden Burton with 2 and Blane Bardin with 1. Best scorers were Cochran (21), Coomer (15), Loy (12), White (10), Bardin (3) and Grant (2).
“We bounced back from another slow start and executed the game plan on defense and the backboard,” head coach Deron Breeze said after the game,.“We had 3-4 defenses we were going with, and everyone was focused around slowing Smith down.”
The coach added smiling: “We didn’t allow him to score a point tonight, and won the rebound battle 35-21 this evening as well.”
