[Scotty doesn't know]

I just got in from the game and here are my thoughts - the game was won in the first quarter. Elliott County won the last 3 quarters, but they were shell shocked in the first. They didn't appear to have any kind of gameplan in place at all to start the game and found themselves down 16-3 at one point. I'm not sure if the Elliott coach failed to watch the other Shelby Valley games or what, but he had no plan that I could see as to how to attack SV's defense. Take away that miserable start and Elliott County wins the game. On the 2nd or 3rd play, a Shelby Valley player grabbed Ferguson around the body and slammed him to the floor on one end. On the next play on the other end, Ferguson was hammered twice by the SV big men. Neither was noticed by the officiating crew and that kind of set the tone for the first quarter. The officials were absolutely terrible on both ends and against both teams. They allowed SV to play a physical game and dominate the game by not blowing the whistle. There were numerous times that SV gathered steals by just running into Elliott guards and taking the ball. The officiating in this whole tournament was sketchy at best. Ironically enough, I went to eat after the game and one of the officials walked in the door. I said "that was a pretty intense game, wasn't it?" He answered and then walked out the door and got his food to go.

Elliott had numerous opportunities to get back in the game but always came up a shot or two short. I think their undoing was not allowing Ferguson to get back in the game offensively. He was spotted up several times but they didn't get the ball to him. They just about had to get him going from the outside in order to make a comeback of that magnitude. He hit the big shot near the end of the game to make it 55-52 and then Elliott had the ball with a chance to tie. They should've found Ferguson for that shot, IMO, but Timmy Knipp took the shot and it came up well short. It was, however, a good shot and not forced. He was open but just missed. With 1.5 seconds remaining, SV inbounded the ball and the SV player caught it and landed on the out of bounds stripe. It should've been Elliott's ball with around 1 second remaining but the officials didn't see it and hence the time ran off the clock.

Altogether, SV was the better team today and they were more prepared than Elliott was. I won't be shocked at all to see these two teams win their regions and win their first round games at Rupp to setup a rematch. For the regions that thought they caught a break by drawing the 15th and 16th, good luck to you. Shelby Valley is the real deal. They are big, strong, well coached, and they play as good of defense as I've seen in Kentucky this season. Despite what many will say, Elliott is the real deal to and they will be ready to make a run in March. This is a great year for mountain basketball.

Love this post. Completely agree