[Stardust]

PAINTSVILLE — Ashland makes chaos look good — real good.

The Tomcats turned on the heat Friday night, picking apart an injury-riddled Johnson Central team.

Senior Corey Gregg scored a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds and the Tomcats cruised to a 64-47 win at Eagle Fieldhouse.

“Corey has played this way all season,” said Ashland coach Buddy Biggs. Gregg, the state’s second leading scorer, was on-par with his season average of 24.6 points per game. He shot 8 of 20 from the floor and was 9 of 11 from the free-throw line.

While Gregg led the offense, the Tomcats’ defense was intense, switching often from a trap-frenzy 2-3 zone, 1-3-1 and man-to-man. Johnson Central (20-7), which led 27-26 at the half, had 25 turnovers.

“Our guards didn’t do a good job handling the pressure,” said Johnson Central coach Tommy McKenzie. “Ashland did a great job of throwing a lot of different looks at us. It made us uncomfortable, especially in the second half.”

Ashland (17-10) capitalized on nearly all of the Golden Eagles’ mistakes in the second half. The Tomcats blew open a 35-all tie in the third quarter by reeling off nine unanswered points, capped by a basket by Gregg with 35 seconds left in the third quarter to go ahead 44-35. A 12-0 run in the fourth quarter, backed by a stifling defense that held Johnson Central without a field goal for more than 5:00 in the fourth, gave the Tomcats their largest lead of the game at 65-40 with 3:15 left in the game.

Johnson Central, which defeated rival Paintsville, 70-55, on Thursday night played without 6-foot-7 sophomore center Shane Hall who is nursing a leg injury. Senior B.J. Blackburn also did not play.

“You have to give them [Johnson Central] credit,” Biggs continued, “they played inspired basketball in the first half.”

The Golden Eagles led by as many as seven in the first half (27-20) late in the first half. Ashland answered with six unanswered to end the half, and the momentum started to shift.

“We simply started executing on both sides of the floor,” said Biggs. Ashland outrebounded 40-to-37 in the game but by a lopsided 24-to-14 in the second half. “I was very pleased with how we moved the ball, got clean drives and hit shots.”

Logan Salow and Ryan Whetsel had 11 points apiece for the Tomcats, who shot 41 percent from the floor on 24-of-58 attempts.

Salyer was the only player to land in double figures for the Golden Eagles with 13 points. Johnson Central shot 33 percent from the floor on 19-of-57 attempts.
http://dailyindependent.com/localsports/...on-Central