LEXINGTON – The magical season of the Adair County High School boys’ basketball team came to an end early Wednesday afternoon on the floor of Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.
The Indians lost 52-51 in overtime to the Bowling Green High School Purples in the opening game of the UK Healthcare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16, a physical contest in which both teams’ players battled, fought, scratched and threw an occasional elbow during almost every play.
Adair County finishes the season with a record of 30-6, while Bowling Green improves to 29-6 to face the winner on Friday morning of the Wednesday night Ashland Blaze-Calloway County game.
Wednesday’s hard-fought loss closed the chapter on one of the best senior classes in Adair County history – a senior class that led the Indians to a 59-14 combined record over the last two seasons and consecutive Sweet 16 appearances for only the second time in program history.
“They just work hard, that’s the biggest thing,” said Adair County coach Deron Breeze, who appeared just as exhausted as his players at the postgame press conference. “They got the most out of what they got. It’s not like we’ve got six or seven (NCAA) Division I guys out there. … We get the most out of our abilities, we’ve got kids from where they’re at. We did the best we could.”
Trailing the Purples 38-28 with 6:09 left in regulation, the Indians turned up their defensive pressure and stymied Bowling Green’s offense to take their first lead of the game, 46-44 on a layup by senior forward Isaiah Cochran with 1:01 left on the clock.
Bowling Green tied the score 21 seconds later on a layup by senior guard Braylon Banks. Adair County had a chance to win the game in regulation, but a three-point shot by senior guard Connor Loy rimmed out and a putback by senior forward Brayton Coomer missed the mark.
Overtime was another four minutes of physical, gritty basketball. The Indians took a 51-50 lead on a Loy free throw with 32 seconds on the clock, but senior guard Deuce Bailey’s layup with nine seconds left gave the Purples the win, as Adair County came up short on the game’s final possession.
A trio of Adair County seniors – Loy, Coomer and Cochran – combined to score 41 of the Indians’ 51 points: Loy and Cochran each scored 14 points, and Coomer scored 13. Banks was the game’s top scorer with 16 points.
“We got up here twice, and that’s an accomplishment,” said Breeze. “Like I told them before we left … if we didn’t win it all we’d be disappointed. I don’t care if we lost the first, second, third or fourth game. So we lost the first, and again we’re disappointed and hurt by it.”
But as an equally disappointed Cochran said during the postgame press conference, the last two years have been pretty special for him and his teammates.
“I built a bond that I didn’t expect to build with these guys,” he said. “It was the best decision I probably ever made with this sport of basketball, coming here. It’s been everything to me.”
By Duane Bonifer
