[GeorgeLopez1234]

Martin co squeaked out a win over the tigers tonight at home but wasn’t the prettiest game of the season. Not much to say about the players besides the effort that wasn’t there til the last 4 minutes of the game. But gotta fault coaching in this one. Coach James looked stumped on paintsvilles 3-2 zone and didn’t know how to attack it. Then on the other side of the court paintsville was doing basically whatever they wanted offensively and no adjustment was made. Thankfully the cards gave enough effort at the end to pull it out. But coach James has got to figure out how to attack a zone. With that being said it’s hard to win in the 57th and now three teams are tied for first.

[-STAT-]

I tell ya what, if you take away the final 2-2 1/2 minutes of this game, Paintsville wins, they basically won it anyways but just squandered it late.

Paintsville literally played the perfect game, had a well prepared gameplan and executed it perfectly. Martin still made their usual assortment of 3's but they could not figure out the zone that Paintsville had, mostly 3-2 but was 2-3 early on. I think coach Slone is to the point in his career, if Martin Co would've figured out how to attack the zone more, he would've changed things up, but last night he really didn't have to. Like I said Martin still hit their 3's and it kept them in the game, and the fact that they can just score so quickly on you. Watts definitely had an off night, think he only had like 12 points, but MC has so many other options to pick them up, and it really showed last night. They narrowly escaped, but it's proven that Martin Co can be beat. With how Paintsville is still playing, JC & Pikeville, those could be your 4 teams starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.

I will be honest tho, Paintsville lost this game more than Martin won it. Cole was getting whatever he wanted last night, he asserted himself early and was by far the best player on the floor last night, finished with 38. It's been documented on here that Martin Co isn't very consistent on the defensive end, and it showed last night, Paintsville was getting to the basket with ease, between Cole, Lauffer, Kinner, and then Woods who was having his way already with his back to the basket, I'd love to know how many points in the paint they had. As much as Paintsville attacked the basket for the first 3 quarters, they were still attacking in the 4th, but not like they should have, they went away from it, didn't completely freeze the ball, but wasn't as aggressive as they should've been. We've all seen in those situations that it's never good for the team with a lead to play keep away, when you're up 15-20 with 3 minutes to go? Then yeah by all means, but when you're barely holding onto a 5-6 point lead with that much time left, you want to try and still attack the basket, they didn't do it as much, also had some very costly turnovers late and Martin made them pay.

If Paintsville wins that game, they're in the drivers seat for the 1 seed in the district, more than likely would've gotten it but now it's a complete mess at the top. Paintsville has beaten Central already, Martin Co beat Paintsville, and Central beat Martin, so all 3 have 1 loss in district play. Sure doesn't get any easier for Paintsville as they travel across town to Central tomorrow night.

[IntheZone]

Martin county did not deserve to win this game but the old saying goes it’s better to be lucky than good and that’s what happened last night. 57th is so tough who knows how it’s going to go. Makes for some really good basketball games. Looks like everyone had a good clean game including the refs. 57th has 3 of the top 4 teams in the region. Super region is really good for this district.

[jetpilot]

Martin county did not deserve to win this game but the old saying goes it’s better to be lucky than good and that’s what happened last night. 57th is so tough who knows how it’s going to go. Makes for some really good basketball games. Looks like everyone had a good clean game including the refs. 57th has 3 of the top 4 teams in the region. Super region is really good for this district.

I agree on this. The regional tournament will be 10x better with MC, JC and Paintsville all three in it.

[IntheZone]

Martin county did not deserve to win this game but the old saying goes it’s better to be lucky than good and that’s what happened last night. 57th is so tough who knows how it’s going to go. Makes for some really good basketball games. Looks like everyone had a good clean game including the refs. 57th has 3 of the top 4 teams in the region. Super region is really good for this district.

I agree on this. The regional tournament will be 10x better with MC, JC and Paintsville all three in it.

I thought last year was one of the better regional tournaments in recent memory.

[57guru]

I think that Coach James had a good set up for the zone, Paintsville just defended it well. Watts could have drove more and broke the zone open more. In the fourth when him and Maynard attacked the basket more, the Cards offense ran better and got them back into the game. those two are special athletes, and need to keep attacking the basket. The 3-2 plays well vs the 3 point ball and it slowed Davis down from behind the arc. He is a real competitor though and found other ways to score as well as making several big defensive plays. Dials made some big clutch 3s with hands in his face, and finished with an impressive performance. As far as coaching goes, Coach James and Crum are two of the best basketball minds around here, and other than the occasional slip, will have a plan to compete with anyone.

We also have to acknowledge that Paintsville has came a long was and is not a pushover team. Ethan Cole is tough to contain under 20, and Lauffer does a good job controlling the game. At the end of the day for this game though the Cards started to figure out what worked best, and proved they were the better team in basically every category.