[wooderson]

Scrolling through the basketball threads and I must have missed this one. A very very good regional tournament that year. 5 really good teams with Belfry, Elkhorn City, Johnson Central, Shelby Valley and Betsy Lane all had a shot at winning the region. The Elkhorn/Central was a classic. I always felt Johnson Central was the 1 team that could give Belfry fits with their size from Salisbury and Fairchild. Some tough breaks cost them that opening round game in OT. Shelby Valley dodged a bullet in their opening round game with McDowell winning by 1. The semis were all classics with the night cap with Belfry/Shelby Valley game being the best game I’ve ever seen in my 30+ years of watching of watching 15th region basketball. Belfry overcome sub par games from their back court of Hylton and Hager to hold off a very good Valley team. And for the record it was a kid named Mark Williamson that led the Pirates that night not John Paul. Bowling for Valley was his unstoppable self but the inside game of Williamson, Kinser and Dotson would be too much for Valley. The hero of the game was Chris Phillips for Belfry who hit the game winner while being fouled and hitting the free throw. The early game was back and forth with Elkhorn controlling the 2nd half throughout. Bailiff was simply a man in that game. He was always a poor mans Jody Thompson who could do it all and Heff was exactly what everybody has heard about him and he was just a freshman. Betsy Lane was led by King who was probably the most underrated player in the 15th that year, he was the glue that held that team together when the games got tough. Now the final game was a back and forth kind of game. Belfry was bothered by foul trouble to their stars Williamson and Dotson which killed all front court production, add to that Bailiff being unstoppable for 3 quarters and the game wasn’t decided until late. Hylton for Belfry carried the load with 40+ points and Belfry was again your 15th region championship. I was fortunate enough to be there for all 7 games and I would rank it top 3 in 15th region tournament. The defending champ took some huge hits but stayed the course and were deservingly crowned champ.