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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.