CORBIN — Locked in a 29-29 tie midway through the third quarter, Harlan County found itself in trouble for the second straight night against a 13th Region rival in the Tim Short Auto Mall Classic at Corbin.
Senior guard Trent Noah, who has signed with South Carolina and is a two-time all-stater, took over at that point, just as he’s done many times on his way to over 3,000 points in his career. Four straight trips down the court in a 60-second span resulted in four straight Noah 3-pointers. A tie game was now a 12-point lead for the Bears, and North Laurel was never able to recover. HCHS went on to a 65-58 victory over the two-time defending 13th Region champions.
“That’s why he’s going to play in the SEC next year,” said North Laurel coach Nate Valentine. “He’s a good player, and that’s what he does. He makes plays. He can score in bunches. There is no margin for error when you play Harlan County.”
“That might surprise some people, but it doesn’t surprise me,: Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “You know at any point in time he can get hot and take over a game.”
Noah finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds as the Bears improved to 15-2 on the season. Maddox Huff bounced back from a rare off night against Corbin as he finished with 16 points.
Brody Brock led a balanced North Laurel attack with 15 points. Reece Davidson, Joe Smith and Kole Jervis added 12 points each.
A key stat for North was a five-for-28 shooting night from beyond the 3-point line. Brock and Davidson, both key players in last year’s regional tournament title run, missed all 13 attempts combined.
“To beat Harlan County, you’ve got to make some shots,” Valentine said. “Anybody that’s going to beat them, if anyone can, will have to make a lot of shots. We went through a dry spell of about six minutes. Credit to them though. They are very good defensively.”
North made its first three shots in building an 8-0 lead, but then missed 10 of its next 11 as Harlan County slowly cut the deficit to 10-7 by the end of the first quarter.
Huff and Noah combined to score the first 12 points of the second quarter as the Bears built a 19-10, but they were unable to build on the momentum as North battled back to a 24-24 tie by halftime as Davidson and Brock each had two baskets in the period.
Noah owned the third quarter with 18 points on seven-of-nine shooting as HCHS built a 48-39 going into the final period. Huff and Caleb Johnson also hit 3s for the Bears.
The Harlan County lead grew to 59-42 with just over four minutes left on baskets by Jaycee Carter, Reggie Cottrell, Johnson and Brody Napier. The Bears struggled from that point with seven turnovers in the fourth quarter after only four in the first three periods.
“We got up 17 in the fourth and made some careless passes. We know you can’t do that come tournament time,” Jones said. “North Laurel came to play today and had a lot more energy than we did.”
Jones said close calls the last two nights against Corbin and North Laurel are a learning opportunity for the Bears, who have been the top-ranked team in the region since the preseason.
“We know that as coaches, but sometimes kids have to be grounded a little bit,” Jones said. “We know North and Corbin are good teams. There are several good teams in our region. We need to get our legs back. I thought we looked dead-legged tonight. That’s probably because of traveling and playing as much as we have the past three weeks. We’ll go back to the drawing board. I think everyone knows we can play better than we have the last two games.”
Harlan County opens its district schedule Tuesday at Bell County in a girls/boys doubleheader. North Laurel (5-10) plays host to Madison Central on Tuesday.