LEBANON, Ky. – It was an historic night for Adair County High School athletics Tuesday night at Marion County High School’s Roby Dome.
The Adair County boys’ basketball team won the 5th Region Tournament championship for the second year in a row by pulling away late from a veteran North Hardin High School team for a 62-48 win, and Adair County senior guard Connor Loy became the first player in program history to score 3,000 career points.
The Indians, who improved to 30-5 on the season, advance to the UK Healthcare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16, to be played March 26-29 at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center in Lexington.
Adair County will open the tournament with an 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT game on March 26 against the winner of the 4th Region Tournament. Bowling Green High School was scheduled to play Clinton County High School at 6 p.m. CT March 19 at Western Kentucky University.
Tuesday night’s win was the seventh time Adair County has won its region, and the second time the Indians have repeated as region champs, also doing it in 1954 and ’55.
But the Indians, who were ranked No. 14 in the final Kentucky High School Boys Basketball Media Poll, did not have an easy path to winning this year’s region tournament.
They led the Trojans (21-10) 29-27 at the half, and Adair County coach Deron Breeze said that “wasn’t where we wanted to be.” Breeze pointed to a golden opportunity the Indians missed to open up a double-digit lead in the waning seconds of the first quarter, which allowed North Hardin to keep the game close throughout the second quarter.
Loy said that Breeze told the team at halftime that they had to “finish layups, take care of the ball, box out and get rebounds.”
And that’s precisely what Adair County did, as the Indians opened the third quarter with a 7-2 run to take a 36-29 lead midway through the quarter.
North Hardin’s Joydin Vornberger kept the Trojans close, scoring all 11 of their points in the quarter. Vornberger, who entered the game averaging 8.9 points a game, finished with a game-high 18 points and was named to the all-tournament team.
Also in the third quarter, Loy scored his 3,000th career point. The playmaker guard penetrated the lane with a crossover dribble and then scooped the ball up and off the backboard with his left hand to give the Indians a 40-33 lead with 2:20 left in the quarter.
North Hardin pulled to 42-38 at the end of the quarter, thanks to a Vornberger three-point play, and then had a chance to trim the lead even more when they opened the fourth quarter with the ball. But the Trojans came up empty against Adair County’s defense, and the Indians proceeded to go on a methodical 13-2 run. By the time North Hardin connected on their first field goal of the quarter with 2:59 left in regulation, the game was all but over – especially with the ball in the very capable hands of Loy.
Loy, who Breeze called the “best point guard in the state,” had a hand in 11 of the 13 points the Indians scored during the fourth-quarter run, then he made sure Adair County put the game on ice.
“When you got the lead, you can put the ball in his hands and just kind of control the game by taking the air out of it,” said Breeze. “He does a good job of finding the open man.”
Loy, who was named to the all-tournament team, was a big reason the Indians connected on 12 of 17 shots in the second half, a 70.6% shooting percentage. When he wasn’t finding an open teammate in the set offense, Loy was either driving to the basket to dish out one of his game-high seven assists or scoring his team-high 17 points.
For the game, Adair County hit 57.1% of their shots, while North Hardin was held to 35% second-half shooting. The Trojans shot 40% for the game.
In addition to Loy, senior guard Isaiah Cochran, senior forward Brayton Coomer and senior forward Lane Grant were also named to the all-tournament team.
With more than a week off until the state tournament opens, Breeze said his team has its sights set on making history one more time this season by winning the program’s first state championship.
“We might not win next week, but we’re going up there with the mindset that we’re going to win the state tournament,” Breeze said following Tuesday night’s game. “Winning the region wasn’t our goal this year. We never talked about winning the region. … Now we’re going to Lexington, and we’re going to give it our best. … We’re not happy just being there. Right now, our mindset is to win the whole thing.”
By Duane Bonifer
