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Pikeville topples Wildcats, but can’t tame Tigers

BY Randy White

Staff Writer

BETSY LAYNE — It looked like Deven Adams’ dunk with 3:53 left put an exclamation point on Pikeville’s 15th Region All “A” Classic.

But proved to be deceiving as Paintsville came back to pull out a 72-69 double overtime win Saturday to advance to the All “A” State tournament.

“We got six seniors on this team and you expect seniors to be resilient,” Paintsville coach Bill Mike Runyon said. “We expect these guys to keep fighting and coming back. I’m proud of the way these guys never quit. We may not have played great, but we never quit.”

Adams’ dunk with 3:53 left gave Pikeville a 55-47 lead. Paintsville’s Landon Slone answered with a three for Paintsville, but Tim Honaker scored inside and was fouled; Honaker converted the free throw to push the lead back to eight.

The Tigers kept fighting back as J.D. Vanhoose hit a three and Justin Murray split a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 58-54. Slone came up with a steal and Shane Grimm was fouled; he split the free throws to cut the margin to three. Blake Bundy came up with an offensive rebound and scored with 1:27 left to bring Pikeville’s lead to 58-57.

“I don’t think that anybody realizes how well-coached a team Pikeville is,” Runyon said. “Coach (Bart) Williams does a great job with his group of players and one day real soon everybody else in the region is going to realize exactly how good of a coach he is.”

Deven Adams finally broke the three-minute scoreless streak for Pikeville with a basket inside with 26 seconds left. The basket gave Pikeville a 60-57 lead.

“In two nights, our kids grew up a whole lot on the court,” Williams said. “When we shoot the ball well and play solid defense, we can play with anybody. I think this gave our kids a lot of confidence and we realized that we can play with the big boys of the region.”

Paintsville’s Murray was fouled with 18 seconds left; he made both free throws to cut the lead to 60-59. Adams fouled out on the play.

Pikeville’s Tyler Baker was fouled to stop the clock with just 10 seconds left. He made the first, but missed the second free throw, leaving a two-point margin.

Slone took the ball down court and got a shot off, but he missed. Slone fought for the offensive rebound and his putback just beat the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Grimm scored early for Paintsville in overtime. Pikeville answered by going to Honaker inside. The senior scored and was fouled with 2:26 left. He made the free throw to give Pikeville a 64-63 lead. Grimm answered for the Tigers by splitting two free throws to tie the game at 64-64.

With a tie game and the ball, Paintsville became patient, very patient. The Tigers took possession with 2:20 when Honaker fouled out and Paintsville held the ball for one final shot. After holding the ball for 2:10, the Tigers’ offense went to work, but Murray threw up a tough shot as he was falling down at the buzzer; the shot was no good and the game went into a second overtime.

“I think that when they decided to hold the ball in the first overtime that kind of bailed us out,” Williams said. “I’ll take our chances with two or three starters out.”

Matt Clevenger split a pair of free throws with 2:04 left to give Pikeville a 65-64 lead. It was the Panthers’ last lead of the game.

Paintsville answered with six straight points. Bundy made an easy breakaway layup and Murray and Slone each added two free throw to seal up the win for Paintsville.

“Usually losing don’t hurt this much until March,” Williams said. “We’ll bounce back and see how we respond to this loss Tuesday at Johnson Central.”

Slone led the way for Paintsville with a game-high 29 points. Murray added 13 and Bundy also reached double figures with 12.

Clevenger and Adams led the way for Pikeville with 17 points each. Honaker added 14 and Gatlin Clark also reached double figures with 10.

Pikeville 62,

Shelby Valley 51

In the 15th Region All “A” Classic semifinals Pikeville got a momentum swing right before halftime that carried over to the second half and a win over rival Shelby Valley Friday night.

Tyler Newsome pulled down an offensive rebound and scored with 2:26 left in the first half to give Shelby Valley a 24-14 lead over Pikeville.

The Panthers ended the half on a 9-0 run. Honaker scored inside and was fouled with 2:15 left; he hit the free to cut the lead to 24-17. Honker added another basket just seconds later as he drilled a pull up jumper. Clevenger and Clark each hit a basket to cut the lead to 24-23 at the half.

Clark opened the third quarter with a three for Pikeville to give the Panthers their first lead at 26-24.

Shelby Valley responded with a basket by Ashley Hatfield and a three from Jonah Justice. Clark hit his second three for Pikeville with 6:40 left to tie the game at 29-29.

The two teams kept trading the lead in the third. Jordan Bell hit a three with 3:59 left in the third to give Pikeville a 34-33 lead, but Jacob Bryant answered for Shelby Valley with an offensive rebound and putback.

The Panthers finished the third off with baskets by Clevenger and Honaker to give Pikeville a 39-35 lead heading into the fourth.

Shelby Valley got to within four a couple of times during the fourth, but couldn’t get any closer.

Pikeville pushed the lead to 10 (51-41) with 3:21 when Clark found Adams on an alley-oop.

Jonah Justice tried to keep the Wildcats in the game by hitting a three with 3:05 left to cut the lead to seven. Then Logan Bryant came up with what appeared to be a steal and an easy layup, but he was whistled for a foul and was hit with a technical foul after reacting to the call. Clevenger hit all four free throws to push the lead to 11. The Wildcats pulled to within seven, but couldn’t overcome the big lead and Pikeville advanced to the finals.

Shelby Valley (15-3) and Pikeville (11-7) will square off for the third straight Friday when the two meet this week at Pikeville for their third game this season.

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Paintsville 14 5 18 24 3 8 — 72

Pikeville 10 19 17 18 3 5 — 69

Paintsville — Landon Slone 29, Justin Murray 13, Blake Bundy 12, J.D. Vanhoose 9, Shane Grimm 8, Jeremy Pack 1.

Pikeville — Matt Clevenger 17, Deven Adams 17, Tim Honaker 14, Gatlin Clark 10, Tyler Baker 7, Jordan Bell 4.

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Shelby Valley 8 16 11 16 — 51

Pikeville 4 19 16 23 — 62

Shelby Valley — Jonah Justice 13, Ashley Hatfield 13, Elisha Justice 9, Tyler Newsome 6, Jacob Bryant 5, Logan Bryant 5.

Pikeville — Tim Honaker 15, Matt Clevenger 14, Deven Adams 13, Jordan Bell 10, Gatlin Clark 8, Devin Burchett 4.