The Best Seat in the House

News and notes from day 2 of the boys 12th Region Tournament at Lincoln County:

• Mercer County defeated Southwestern 56-54 in overtime; Somerset defeated Boyle County 51-50. Mercer (17-13) plays Somerset (19-9) in Friday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal.
• Another great night of regional basketball, finishing off an exception first round. Both games were close from start to finish; both came down to the final possession. There was no lead larger than nine points in either game. The four first-round games Monday and tonight were decided by an average of 4.25 points, with three of them decided by three or fewer.
• Mercer appeared to be beaten in regulation when Southwestern’s Isaiah Collier scored on a layup with two seconds left. The Titans called timeout at :01.9, called another at midcourt at :01.3 immediately after the inbounds pass, then caught a break when Blake Pennington was fouled by Adam Isaacs on the second inbounds play. Pennington hit two free throws to force overtime.
• The Titans led 55-51 with 21 seconds left in overtime, but the Warriors’ David Kapinga hit a 3-pointer at :15. Will Hager then made one of two free throws for Mercer, and Southwestern’s Isaacs missed a 3-point shot from the right corner ahead of the buzzer.
• Mercer made 10 of 14 free throws, including five of six in overtime.
• Hager had 17 points, Pennington had 16 and John Ingram had 12 for Mercer. Justin Edwards led Southwestern with 21 points; Kapinga added 13.
• Southwestern’s loss means the defending champion was knocked out in the first round for the second consecutive year. 2011 champion Wayne County lost a first-round game to East Jessamine last year.
• Somerset won despite scoring only three points in the final 3:17. Ryan Dishman scored on a putback with 1:52 left, then hit two free throws at :54 to make it a four point game. Boyle’s Chapman Bean hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left, then forced a turnover by Dishman with 15 seconds left. The Rebels’ Hagen Tyler was fouled with 5.3 seconds left, but he missed the front end of the bonus. Boyle’s Micah Miniard rebounded, but Dishman stripped the ball from him, and the Rebels couldn’t foul Dishman before time expired.
• Somerset scored the first nine points of the game, but Boyle led by eight points midway through the third quarter and was still up by six midway through the fourth.
• Boyle, which shot an area-best 73.3 percent at the free-throw line through the district tournaments, made only three of 11 foul shots. Somerset was 8 for 12 at the line.
• Dishman led Somerset with 15 points, followed by Ryan Weddle with 12 and Cam Cheuvront with 10. Tyler had 14 points, Bean had 11 and Brett Jones had 10 for Boyle.
• The girls 12th Region Tournament opens Wednesday at Pulaski County. The first-round doubleheader begins with Casey County (13-15) facing Burgin (14-15) at 6 p.m., followed by Southwestern (19-11) facing Boyle County (17-13) at 7:30. Casey defeated Burgin 63-46 on Feb. 14; Southwestern defeated Boyle 61-34 on Nov. 30.

The regional review returns, with nightly nuggets from the boys and girls 12th Region Tournaments. Tonight, here are news and notes from day 1 of the boys regional at Lincoln County:

• Wayne County defeated Pulaski County 57-54; West Jessamine defeated Lincoln County 79-69. Wayne (25-7) plays West Jessamine (18-11) in Friday’s 6 p.m. semifinal.
• The Pulaski-Wayne game was, in a word, terrific. It was a memorable battle between two teams good enough to win this region that came down to a final shot. Wayne took a 55-54 lead on Jason Perkins’ 3-pointer with 46 seconds remaining, a basket that followed two missed free throws by Tyler Goins of Pulaski, whose team was just 1 for 7 at the foul line. The Maroons turned the ball over with 11 seconds left, and Perkins hit two free throws at :07 to make it a three-point game. The Cardinals had a foul to give, but they chose to keep it in their pocket. Pulaski’s Taylor Gover got a good look for a 3-point shots from the left side, but neither it nor a tip-in attempt by Sean Ross would go down before time ran out.
• Neither team led by more than five points before Pulaski went up 31-24 midway through the third quarter, but Wayne wiped out that lead in less than three minutes, and the teams were never separated by more than three points in the final 10 minutes.
• Kody Johnson of Pulaski led all scorers with 28 points, more than half of his team’s total. Corey Stearns scored 15 points to lead Wayne, and Perkins and Dagan Shelton had 13 each for the Cardinals.
• Youth won out over experience. Wayne starts two freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and a senior; Pulaski starts four seniors and a sophomore.
• The second game was shaping up to be just as close until West Jessamine pulled away from Lincoln in the third quarter. The Colts led by two points at halftime, eased out to a six-point edge, then scored nine straight points at the front end of a 13-2 run that left them with a 50-32 lead with less than 90 seconds left in the period. The Patriots made one last run in the closing minutes when they scored eight straight points to pull within 75-68, but that was as close as they got.
• Chase Fain scored a game-high 26 points for West Jessamine. Daulton Peters scored 19 points and Will Henderson added 13 for the Colts. B.J. Hoover and Timmy Taylor scored 18 points each for Lincoln, and Luke Hill had 14 points.
• Lincoln loses only one senior (Hill), while West Jessamine is older but not that old. The Colts have five seniors, but only two start.
• The first round concludes Tuesday when Southwestern (22-8) faces Mercer County (16-13) at 6 p.m. and Boyle County (15-12) faces Somerset (18-9) at 7:30. Southwestern defeated Mercer 84-57 on Feb. 14. Boyle and Somerset did not meet during the regular season.

Two area girls teams with the best records in the region drew into the same bracket Sunday for the Girls 12th Region Tournament, which opens Wednesday at Pulaski County.

Defending champion Lincoln County and Mercer County, each of whom has 24 wins, could meet in the semifinals next week if they get past their first-round opponents.

The regional draw held Sunday at Somerset revealed that Lincoln will play Somerset, one of three teams in the field with a losing record, in the first of two first-round game Thursday, and Mercer will play McCreary Central immediately afterward.

Lincoln, the 45th District champion, defeated 47th District runner-up Somerset 60-42 on Jan. 28; Mercer, the 46th District winner, and McCreary, the 48th District runner-up, have not met this season.

Lincoln is 15-0 against 12th Region foes, including a 64-55 win over Mercer on Feb. 5 in Stanford. The Patriots’ ledger this year also features wins over Southwestern and Casey County, the other two district champions in the field. They defeated Southwestern 65-50 and beat Casey 55-40.

The other two sub-.500 teams in the regional field, 47th District champion Casey County and 45th District runner-up Burgin, will meet in the opening game of the tournament Wednesday. Their game comes just 13 days after Casey defeated Burgin 63-46 in Liberty.

Boyle County, the 45th District runner-up, will meet 48th District champion Southwestern in Wednesday’s second game. Southwestern defeated Boyle 61-34 in the Rebels’ season opener Nov. 30 in Somerset.

The winners meet in semifinal games March 4, with the championship set for March 5. The regional champion will play March 14 in the Girls Sweet Sixteen in Bowling Green. Here’s the full schedule for the boys regional, with district winners listed first in the first-round matchups:

12th Region Tournament

GIRLS

At Pulaski County

First Round

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Casey County (13-15) vs. Burgin (14-15), 6 p.m.

Southwestern (19-11) vs. Boyle County (17-13), 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 28

Lincoln County (24-5) vs. Somerset (13-17), 6 p.m.

Mercer County (24-8) vs. McCreary Central (16-14), 7:30 p.m.

———

Monday, March 4

Semifinals

Casey County-Burgin winner vs. Southwestern-Boyle County winner, 6 p.m.

Lincoln County-Somerset winner vs. Mercer County-McCreary Central winner, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, March 5

Championship

Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

The boys 12th Region Tournament opens with a must-see game, and there will be plenty of good basketball after that in what figures to be a wide-open event next week at Lincoln County.

Pulaski County plays Wayne County in the first first-round game Monday, a battle between the teams with the two best records in the region — Pulaski is 23-6; Wayne is 24-7 — and a rematch of a tight game Jan. 18 that Wayne won at home 74-72.

The second game in a stacked upper bracket is also a rematch, as West Jessamine will face Lincoln County. The Colts won 64-62 at Lincoln on Dec. 11. And Tuesday’s lower-bracket card also opens with a rematch, as Southwestern faces Mercer County just 12 days after the Warriors spanked the Titans 84-57 at Southwestern.

The only first-round game that isn’t a rematch is the last one, which pits Boyle County against Somerset in Tuesday’s second game. The teams haven’t met since December 2008.

The Rebels appear to have gotten the best draw among Advocate-area teams, having avoided the tougher of the two brackets and steered clear of playing any of the region’s powerhouses in the first round. On the other hand, they face a possible semifinal matchup with Southwestern, which beat them in last year’s regional final.

Pairings for the girls regional will be drawn Sunday, as there are still titles to be decided tonight in the 47th and 48th districts. Here’s the full schedule for the boys regional, with district winners listed first in the first-round matchups:

12th Region Tournament

BOYS

At Lincoln County

First Round

Monday, Feb. 25

Pulaski County (23-6) vs. Wayne County (24-7), 6 p.m.

West Jessamine (17-11) vs. Lincoln County (15-17), 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Southwestern (22-8) vs. Mercer County (16-13), 6 p.m.

Boyle County (15-12) vs. Somerset (18-9), 7:30 p.m.

———

Friday, March 1

Semifinals

Pulaski County-Wayne County winner vs. West Jessamine-Lincoln County winner, 6 p.m.

Southwestern-Mercer County winner vs. Boyle County-Somerset winner, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 2

Championship

Semifinal winners, 7:30 p.m.

If this basketball postseason has taught us anything thus far, it is that there is virtually no difference between most of the teams seeded second and third in four- or five-team districts. And that’s something we already knew.

Still, that maxim has been underscored once again this week in the 12th Region, where four of the six district tournament games played between Nos. 2 and 3 seeds have been won by the lower seeded team.

The following No. 3 seeds have already taken down No. 2s this week: Boyle County boys (over Lincoln County, 45th District), Boyle County girls (over Danville, 45th), Mercer County boys (over East Jessamine, 46th) and Burgin girls (over East Jessamine, 46th).

Seeding has held in two other matchups: Somerset boys over Rockcastle County (47th) and Southwestern boys over McCreary Central (48th), with two girls 2-vs.-3 games scheduled for tonight.

If you’re looking for a surprise among teams that have qualified for next week’s regionals, the closest thing you’ll find is probably the Boyle girls, whose win over Danville on Wednesday was only their second in the last eight meetings between the archrivals and who might not have been expected to duplicate their January win, especially after Danville crushed them in their most recent showdown.

The field for the boys 12th Region Tournament is full, but there are still three spots open in the girls field. Both semifinals in the 47th District and one in the 48th will be played tonight.

Here’s the full list of regional qualifiers, listed in order of their district seeds:

Boys

• 45th District: Boyle County (14-12), Lincoln County (15-16)
• 46th District: West Jessamine (16-11), Mercer County (16-12)
• 47th District: Pulaski County (22-6), Somerset (18-8)
• 48th District: Wayne County (24-6), Southwestern (21-8).

Girls

• 45th District: Lincoln County (23-5), Boyle County (17-12)
• 46th District: Mercer County (23-8), Burgin (14-14)
• 47th District: No qualifiers.
• 48th District: Southwestern (18-11)

All four boys district finals will be played Friday. The girls finals are spread out over three days, beginning with the 46th tonight, the 45th on Friday and the 47th and 48th on Saturday.

The boys regional begins Monday at Lincoln County; the girls regional begins Wednesday at Pulaski County. Pairings for the boys tourney will be drawn Saturday, the girls drawing is Sunday, and the results of both draws will be posted here.

It still isn’t certain that this is the final year of operation for the financially troubled Monticello school district, but it still isn’t looking good there.

That means that the school’s boys and girls basketball teams will probably play their final games this week in the 47th District Tournament, or perhaps next if they advance to the 12th Region Tournament, which isn’t likely. The two teams have only nine wins between them this season, and both are the No. 4 seeds in their respective districts.

It’s fitting, however, that the Trojans and Lady Trojans will apparently go out at home. They’re hosting the 47th District tourney this week in their little bandbox, with the Monticello boys playing Wayne County in a semifinal tonight and the girls playing Southwestern on Wednesday.

The locals will talk about the sad end of an era and cheer their teams one last time, but the tourney also offers a final opportunity to take in the history of a school and a gymnasium that are both more interesting than the average fan realizes.

Did you know, for example, that the Monticello boys have more regional championships than any other past or present 12th Region school? The Trojans have won 16 of them, the first in 1922 — the first year of the state tournament as we know it today — and the last in 1987. No one else even comes close, with Somerset (9), Danville (8), Wayne County (8) and Laurel County (7) next on the list.

The Trojans also rank among the top 10 teams in the state in wins — they have been around for more than 100 years, after all — and if they close this year, they’ll still be on that top-10 list for at least four or five more years.

Then there’s that gym, which has been my favorite gym in the 12th Region since the first time I walked in the door 20 years or so ago. It certainly isn’t the biggest or the nicest, but it is the oldest, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many other gyms still in use in Kentucky that have more character or history than theirs. It’s so good, I think it could easily have served as the setting for some faceless visiting team in “Hoosiers” if that movie had been shot in Kentucky instead of Indiana.

The walls echo with the noise of great games played before packed houses throughout the building’s 80-year history, and they display banners that tout the exploits of some truly great teams and individuals that have played there during that time, including 19 regional championship teams (16 boys, three girls) and one boys team that reached the state finals in 1960.

Gyms like that remind you of a time when the local high school basketball game was all that mattered on a cold Friday night. If you were a fan, you knew you’d better get there early for a game against a rival or a postseason game. If you were an opposing coach or player, you knew you were in for a long, hot night.

I’ve made only four or five trips to Monticello’s gym during my time in Danville, but I always looked forward to them, and I wish I had time to go back once more this week. If you can’t make it either, at least read Mike Fields’ excellent story from Sunday’s Lexington Herald-Leader that takes a good, long look at the school, the team and the gym. And if you do go this week, of course, get there early.

Ready or not, the postseason is here.

Most area basketball coaches would probably say they’re not, because most don’t think their teams are ever truly ready, and the start of district tournament play this week is probably catching a few fans by surprise as well.

Today is the earliest postseason start date I can remember in more than 30 years of watching high school basketball. The districts will be over by Feb. 22, the regionals are wrapped up by March 5, and both state tournaments will be in the books by March 16. Couple this with a later-than-usual end to the college basketball season — the NCAA tournament doesn’t start until March 19 — and it seems as if the high school season is ending in a hurry.

Yet it isn’t much different from last year, when the district tourneys also started on Presidents Day (Feb. 20), or from the past several seasons.

Still, here it is. Two of the districts that include local teams, the 45th and 46th, open play tonight, while the 47th tips off Tuesday.

Here are the schedules for all three tournaments (seeds and records are in parentheses), along with the anticipated dates for the regional tournaments:

BOYS

45th District

At Boyle County

Monday, Feb. 18

Garrard County (4; 6-21) vs. Kentucky School for the Deaf (5, 5-21), 7:45 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Boyle County (1; 13-12) vs. Garrard County-Kentucky School for the Deaf winner, 7:45 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 20

Danville (2; 10-15) vs. Lincoln County (3; 14-16), 7:45 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 22

Championship, 7:45 p.m.

46th District

At East Jessamine

Monday, Feb. 18

West Jessamine (1; 15-11) vs. Burgin (4; 9-17), 6 p.m.

East Jessamine (2; 23-7) vs. Mercer County (3; 15-12), 7:45 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 21

Championship, 7 p.m.

47th District

At Somerset

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Pulaski County (1; 21-6) vs. Casey County (4; 14-16), 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 20

Somerset (2; 17-8) vs. Rockcastle County (3; 7-21), 7 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 22

Championship, 7 p.m.

* * *

12th Region Tournament

At Lincoln County

Feb. 25-26, March 1-2

========

GIRLS

45th District

At Boyle County

Monday, Feb. 18

Garrard County (4; 16-7) vs. Kentucky School for the Deaf (5; 0-24), 6 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Lincoln County (1; 22-5) vs. Garrard County-Kentucky School for the Deaf winner, 6 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 20

Danville (2; 18-9) vs. Boyle County (3; 16-12), 6 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 22

Championship, 7:45 p.m.

46th District

At East Jessamine

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Mercer County (1; 22-8) vs. West Jessamine (4; 5-18), 6 p.m.

East Jessamine (2; 17-8) vs. Burgin (3; 13-14), 7:45 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 22

Championship, 7 p.m.

47th District

At Somerset

Thursday, Feb. 21

Casey County (1; 11-15) vs. Pulaski County (4; 12-17), 6:30 p.m.

Rockcastle County (2; 16-11) vs. Somerset (3; 12-16), 8 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 23

Championship, 7 p.m.

* * *

12th Region Tournament

At Pulaski County

Feb. 27-28, March 4-5

Three area girls basketball players are among 75 seniors from across the state who have been invited to try out for the Kentucky All-Stars.

Emily Fox of Lincoln County, Cassidy Martin of Mercer County and Kasey Young of Danville were invited to try out for the girls team that will be coached by Chris Souder of Mercer County. The tryouts will take place March 23-24 at Georgetown College.

Other 12th Region players invited to try out are Taylor Gover (boys) and Brittany Warren (girls) of Pulaski County. Additional players may be added to the list, as invitations are extended to the boys and girls players of the year from all 16 regions.

Those chosen for the team will play in the Kentucky-Indiana all-star series this summer. The Kentucky and Indiana all-stars will square off June 14 at Freedom Hall in Louisville and June 15 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Local swimmers and wrestlers are competing in their respective regional competitions today and Saturday.

Swimmers from Boyle County and Danville will race in the 2nd Region Championships at Russell County. Ten wrestlers from Boyle and nine from Danville are entered in the 2nd Region Tournament at John Hardin.

The state wrestling tournament is Feb. 15-16 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington; the state swim meet is Feb. 21-23 at the University of Louisville.

The area’s two best boys teams and two best girls teams will clash on consecutive nights as the high school basketball season enters its homestretch.

The series of showdowns begins tonight when the Boyle County boys play at Mercer in a game matching the only two local teams with winning records this season.

Boyle is 13-8 but has lost back-to-back games to West Jessamine and Danville since reeling off eight consecutive wins. Mercer is 13-9 and has lost two of its last three games, falling to 46th District rivals West Jessamine and East Jessamine on either side of a win over Burgin.

It’s a classic offense-vs.-defense clash, as Mercer is averaging 71.6 points per game but are allowing 67.5 per game, while Boyle averages just 55.2 points but allows only 53.0 per game, the lowest mark in the 12th Region.

On Tuesday, the Mercer County girls play at Lincoln County in a battle between the teams with the two best records in the 12th Region.

Mercer is 18-6 and has won its last four games and nine of its last 10. Lincoln is 19-4 and has won five in a row and 13 of 14. Their game will be the first half of a girls-boys doubleheader.