[Baseball Man]

After watching a video of this game this morning, I am still absolutely amazed that JC lost! What is so shocking is the way it happened. JC jumped out to a 7 point lead after the first quarter and looked like they were in control early. They would go on to build on that lead growing it to 18 points at 38-20 in the early part of the second quarter. (With an 18 point lead at 5:00 min. mark in the second quarter like most, I thought that Pikeville would fold). However, They would go on to out score the Eagles 15-5 and cut the lead to a very manageable 8 points at 43-35. (That run was the key to the game! If, JC builds that lead or even maintains a double digit lead at the half, this game was over.) But, they let the Panthers cut that lead and with it gain momentum and confidence going into the half.
In the third quarter Pikeville showed that confidence and promptly came out and pressured the Eagles getting them out of the game plan. Before you could say WOW, they had out scored JC 25-12 and now Pikeville held a 7 point lead of their own at 62-55. JC made a run after Blair caught fire and was trying to WILL them to the win. But from the 2:00 min. mark on only had two more shot attempts? Final score 95-84.

Now what is so amazing was,In the end Pikeville would have gone on a RUN that would see them out score Johnson Central 75-41 from the 5:00 min. mark of the 2nd quarter to the final buzzer! The same JC program that was making their 6th Straight Region Championship game appearance(2012-2017)and had won 4 of those Championship games was out scored 75-41 by a Pikeville program that had not won a Region Championship since 1999 (18 yrs). and had only 1 win in the Region Tournament from 2012-2016.

Just Amazing!