Bluegrassrivals

Final!

Belfry 16 12 15 17 10 70
Prestonsburg 14 14 13 19 9 69

15th Region at East Kentucky Expo Center at Pikeville

Belfry (10-17) -- Charles 7, Turner 3, Messer 24, Robinson 13, Runyon 12, Hurley 8, Duty 3.

Prestonsburg (16-16) -- Jarrell 22, Williams 17, Anderson 4, Jamerson 5, Hall 13, Stapleton 8.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2009/12/02/10403...rylink=cpy

Messer was a beast! Great effort from all the pirates nice job.Glad to see the anybody but Belfry Refs gone.Great refs tonight.:Thumbs:If Belfry plays well and the refs stay out of it they are as good as anyone!! Charles pays wit a broken hand shows how tough the kid is.Robinson and Runyon handeled the pressure well and Turner played some tough D.Good luck Belfry.:rockon:

This surprises me. P-burg was rolling!

Congrats Pirates

Belfry playing some good basketball when it matters. Congrats pirates

i called it, i said Belfry pulls upset and Messer goes off, dont know if hit the game winner like i said though..congrats Pirates..

If Phelps can't win regionals, I'd be more than happy to cheer for belfry. Great players, with sportsmanship. Great atmosphere. A place where EVERYONE is welcome!
Rooting for the Pirates!!!

Congrats Pirates!!

Finally got to see Messer play tonight, and he played as advertised on offense and defense. Congrats Pirates.

Belfry may win the 15th region.

If you had told me Turner would score 3 and we'd win I'd have punched you in the face. Good games Pirates, let's try to surprise a talented talented East Ridge team.

A great game to watch! Congrats to Belfry. See you Saturday.

Congrats to Belfry. You guys fought hard the whole game & deserve the victory. I think the deciding factor was Jamerson being in foul trouble. P'burg was a totally different team when he was on the floor. When P'urg was up by 5 with a little over a minute to go i know they had open layups (which where missed), but i still think they should have pulled it out to run clock & force Belfry to foul them. Of course its easy to coach from the stands. Bottom line Belfry came to play & left with the victory. Congrats to P'burg coaching staff & team. You guys had a good year & i enjoyed watching you guys. Good luck to the seniors its been fun. As good as Jamerson was this year i can still only think what might have been if he had played all 4 years. Props to you my friend you came to play each night along with the rest of the team. Good luck to Belfry the rest of the way.

Barn Burner!

I have to disagree with what somebody said earlier.

This is not an upset, these are 2 pretty equal teams in my book.

Congrats Pirates!!! Great game Tony!!! Congrats Coach Casey!!!

PIKEVILLE – The Prestonsburg Blackcats couldn’t avoid an upset in the opening round of the 15th Region Boys’ Basketball Tournament. Plagued by foul trouble, Prestonsburg fell to the Belfry Pirates. Junior center/forward Tony Messer scored a game-high 24 points to lead Belfry past 58th District champion Prestonsburg 70-69 in overtime Thursday night in the opening round of the regional tournament at the East Kentucky Expo Center.

Belfry, the team with the fewest wins in the 15th Region Tournament field, knocked off Prestonsburg after finishing runner-up to Phelps in the 60th District last week. Belfry was able to enact some revenge in its latest outing. Prestonsburg edged Belfry 90-88 on Jan. 28 when the two teams hooked up during the regular-season.

With the win, Belfry (10-17) advances to the 15th Region Tournament semifinals.

Prestonsburg, under the direction of first-year head coach James DeRossett, exited the season 16-16. The Blackcats captured the 58th District title last week, completing a solid turnaround after going 7-21 in the 2010-11 season.

The two longtime rivals swapped leads throughout the regional tournament game. Belfry took a hard-fought 16-14 lead out of the opening quarter. The Pirates led by as many as eight points in the second quarter before Prestonsburg battled back to tie the game. Belfry and Prestonsburg were knotted 28-28 at halftime.

Prestonsburg moved ahead and stretched its lead out to nine points (39-30) in the third quarter. But the Pirates wouldn’t go away, countering with an 8-0 run of their own. Belfry battled back to lead 43-31 following a field goal in the final seconds of the third quarter.

Prestonsburg led 60-57 with :57 remaining in regulation. The Pirates tied the contest with 42.3 left and held Prestonsburg scoreless for the remainder of regulation.

Prestonsburg had a chance to pull even but missed a three-point attempt prior to the final buzzer.

Freshman guard Jarrell Jarrell scored the first two points of the overtime period to push Prestonsburg ahead 62-60. Belfry managed to move back ahead and owned multiple leads en route to nipping the Cats 10-9 in the scoring column for the victory in overtime.

Junior Josh Robinson and senior Gary Runyon accompanied Messer in double figures, scoring 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Belfry shot 52 percent (24 of 46) from the field. The Pirates were 18-of-33 (55 percent) from the free throw line.

Belfry is back in the regional semifinals following a loss to then-All “A” Classic state champion Betsy Layne in the opening round of last year’s 15th Region Tournament.

Jarrell led Prestonsburg with 18 points. Following closely behind his backcourt teammate, junior forward Bryson Williams added 17 points for the Blackcats.

Freshman guard Jarrin Hall joined Jarrell and Williams in double figures, finishing with 13 points.

Junior Trey Stapleton chipped in eight points for Prestonsburg in the season-ending loss.

Belfry will play Pike County foe East Ridge in the regional semifinals Saturday. East Ridge edged Sheldon Clark 50-48 in the nightcap Thursday night. Tip-off for the Belfry-Sheldon Clark game is set for 6 p.m.



Read more: Floyd County Times (KY) - 15th Region Tournament Blackcats fall to Belfry in OT

Very sloppy game by both teams.

Prestonsburg did the right thing by taking the ball to the basket at Messer, but shots kept getting blocked. I thought a few of those blocks should have been fouls, but they were close and I don't blame the refs for letting the boys play. Pburg's defense give up a ton of easy buckets late off of turnovers and confusion on where they where supposed to be in the zone. Belfry attacked the basket and made some nice passes to the cutters who got the easy buckets.

Blackcats have no reason to hang their heads. They weren't expected to accomplish very much this season and they come out and really got things going late in the season and captured the 58th tournament championship. Future also looks bright!

Congrats Pirates!

Great game to watch. Both teams played their hearts out. Prestonsburg will be a 15th region contender next year since they are only losing one key player, Jamerson.

^ I will agree but yet disagree. The loss of Adam Crisp, Corey Bentley, Wes Robinson, and Cody Bentley are as much credit to this years success as Jamerson. When you can practice against 5 players that are as good or better than the 5 you start then you get more game like experience in practice. Next year once you get past the starting 5 the talent level will drop off tremendously. Tough competition makes better players and thats what this years team had. Each kid had to compete every day in practice to maintain their playing time. If you didn't get it done then someone else was steppin in. Next year will be a different story unless some major improvements are made from the kids that played jv ball.

Congrats Pirates on a hard faught victory.