Bluegrassrivals

Who wins this cross-town match-up?

Somerset, Pulaski ready for classic grudge match
Game is Monday at PCHS, 7:30 p.m.

By DOUG EADS, CJ Correspondent
Commonwealth Journal

Somerset —

It’s not only the best rivalry in the 12th Region when it comes to prep hoops, but it’s one of the top rivalries in the entire state of Kentucky.
And, it renews tomorrow evening at Pulaski County High School, as the home-standing Maroons get ready to square off for the first of two regular season meetings against the Somerset Briar Jumpers in a pivotal 47th District contest for both clubs.
As far as wins and losses go, PC and Somerset are two clubs headed seemingly in opposite directions.
Al Gover’s Maroons come into tomorrow evening’s contest with just a 7-7 record on the year, but that mark is very deceiving considering the absolute brutal schedule Pulaski County has played over the first half of the season.
Take last week at Lexington Catholic’s Republic Bank Holiday Tournament for example.
PC beat a very good North Oldham team in the opening round of the tourney 62-46, and followed that up with a win over Scott.
The Maroons two losses over the next two night’s came against the host, Lexington Catholic Knights by a 63-60 margin, and an overtime loss to Lakota West, Ohio.
Pulaski County also lost to highly-touted Scott County earlier in the year by only a nine-point margin, and fell to Buckhorn — one of the top dogs in eastern Kentucky — by a single point just over two weeks ago.
Somerset meanwhile is riding a three-game winning streak heading into tomorrow’s showdown at The PC Gym, thanks to winning the Monticello All A Holiday Tournament with three impressive wins over Cordia, Middlesboro, and McLean County almost two weeks ago.
Somerset head coach Don Daniel, who has his Briar Jumpers at 7-3 on the year and 1-1 in district play, says he really likes where his club is at right now, and what it has been able to accomplish so far this season.
“We’ve done some things right so far this year,” stated Daniel.
“We took three or four days off before we went down to Monticello and played in that tournament, and I thought for the most part we played pretty well down there,” continued the Briar Jumper head coach. “This has been a year where we’ve been able to start getting in as to what we wanted, as far as a system. Now, the kids know what we want to get done and what we want to do. They understand the terminology a whole lot better, and as a result, we are playing better basketball this season.”
What Somerset has been doing this year has been winning basketball games — a far cry from last year’s 9-19 mark.
Pulaski County meanwhile, despite the .500 record at 7-7, is still considered to be one of the favorites to win the 12th Region this season — just as they were when the first preseason rankings came out.
Head coach Al Gover noted in the preseason that it would be extremely hard for his club to repeat last year’s 26-7 record, based upon the fact that his team upgraded the schedule significantly for this year.
The Maroons are still led by ‘The Three Amigos’ — Kody Johnson, Taylor Gover, and Tyler Goins, who have all played remarkably well so far this year.
Despite the rocky start as far as wins and losses go, Gover still likes his team very much as district and regional play gets ready to start in earnest for everybody, beginning with tomorrow night’s showdown against Somerset.
“We realize that we’ve played a bunch of tough teams up to this point, and we’re going to continue to play tough teams,” pointed out the PC head coach.
“I told our team at the beginning of the year that it didn’t matter if we won 20 games, or whatever the case may be this year, as long as we’re ready by tournament time I’d be happy,” added Gover. “I think we will be ready for the post season, because the schedule that we’re playing this year will prepare us for it — I have no doubt about that.”
Last year, Pulaski County simply owned this series with Somerset, sweeping the Briar Jumpers in all three meetings between the two clubs.
The Maroons won over Somerset in the first meeting last season at The Briar Patch 85-67, and followed that up with a win on their own home court 75-50.
In the 47th District Tournament — once again on Pulaski’s home court — PC prevailed over the Jumpers 78-54, ending Somerset’s season with that 9-19 record.
However, with a very talented back court led by Cam Cheuvront and Tyler Megargel, to go along with an experienced front court in Alex Lange, Matt Gordon, and Ryan Weddle, Gover says his club will have its work cut out for it in Monday night’s first encounter of the year between the two rivals.
“You look at Somerset, and you’d have to say they’ve been one of the biggest surprises, if not the biggest surprise, in the 12th Region so far this year,” stated the PC head coach.
“They play hard, they play together, they give a good team effort, and they’ve got some kids that can play,” Gover remarked. “We’re going to have to play well to win this game. One of the problems we’ve had so far this year is not letting people beat us off the dribble, and we’re going to have to do a much better job of that, especially against a team as good as Somerset. If we can’t stop them off the dribble, it’s going to be a long night.”
As for Daniel, no one really needs to remind the Somerset coach about how lopsided the three games with PC was last year — the ole’ ball coach is perfectly aware of how those three games went down.
However, the SHS coach refuses to call tomorrow night’s game a must-win for his club — after all, it’s only going to be January 2 with a whole lot of hoops left to play.
Now, Daniel does believe that it is important for his team to play well against Pulaski County tomorrow night, to simply prove, if nothing else, that it does indeed belong on the same court as the Maroons.
“I think it’s a must-play well game — I don’t think it’s a must-must-win game,” pointed out Daniel. “We want to know that we can play well against the best caliber of competition that we go up against, and in PC, we’re going to play as good of a team that is on our schedule.”
“To me, PC and Southwestern is in that same mix along with the other upper echelons of the region, so I would never say that this game is a must-win at this time of the year, but I will say that it is a must-play well game,” added the Somerset coach.
Tipoff for tomorrow night’s Somerset-PC game will get underway at the PCHS gym at 7:30 p.m.

PC...by not a little.

Pulaski County.

Somerset by 2

I think this game will be a lot closer than expected, but I think PC will win.

Touch matchup for Somerset. The Briar Jumpers have been off all week while Pulaski played in the LC Tourney. Somerset is much improved from last season. Pulaski does not have nearly the same record as last year but they are still one of the top 2 teams in the region. Hopefully Somerset can pull the upset but I'll pick the Maroons by about 12. I hope I'm wrong.

Does anyone know if this game will have a live stream?

RoShamBo Wrote:Does anyone know if this game will have a live stream?

Lake 102.3 will be there covering the game on the radio.

I've also heard from some pretty good sources that Pulaski star Kody Johnson will miss this game, as well as, a handful of games due to a knee sprain that he suffered last week in the tournament at LEx Cath. If Johnson is out, this game will be a lot closer than expected.

If Johnson doesn't play that makes it much closer game. Also, Somerset may have the advantage in the paint with the size they have. I still say Pulaski... just by not as much as with Johnson in the game.

Pulaski Co. 72-54.

Pulaski 70
Somerset 57

Somerset freshmen won by 2.

Im going with Somerset in the rivalry game.

Pulaski wins 58-54