John Wheat wasn’t going to overanalyze what he’d just watched unfold from the Middlesboro bench Friday in a 52nd District clash at Harlan County High School. Wheat has seen enough basketball to know what happens when two players the caliber of Trent Noah and Maddox Huff bring their A game on the same night and had a quip ready when someone asked if he got the number of the bus that hit him a few minutes earlier.
“It’s like the old Mary Chapin Carpenter country song, ‘sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug,’” Wheat said after his Jackets fell 97-58 to HCHS. “You know which one we were tonight.”
Noah scored 35 points, hitting 12 of 15 shots from the field, including six of eight 3-pointers. Huff added 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including nine of 11 3s to break the school’s single-game record. Harlan County hit 17 of 27 (63 percent) from beyond the 3-point line.
“Maddox and Trent showed how special they are. I can’t wait to watch Trent play at South Carolina next year because he will play as a freshman right off the bat,” Wheat said. “We have to come to work every day, and these guys are doing that. We played hard tonight, but you have to give them credit. They showed why they are a top 10 team in the state. They need to work on their defense, but they run the floor well and have so many weapons. Everyone forgets about (Reggie) Cottrell, but he can flat out play. This is a special group Harlan County has.”
Harlan County (17-2) was playing only its second game of the season after trips to Louisville and Bristol for major tournaments over the holiday break.
“People may not realize we hadn’t played at home since Dec. 2. We appreciate the big crowd, and these kids were amped up and ready to go,” Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “We took way too many chances on defense, but we shot the ball so well. I want to think we’re more sound defensively than that. We could beat a lot of people tonight the way we shot. We know we aren’t going to shoot like that every night, so we have to keep working and improving on the defensive end. I think that’s why our record is what it is because we’ve improved defensively.”
Junior guard Jerimah Beck scored 15 points, senior forward Trey King tossed in 14 and senior guard Cayden Grigsby added 10 points to lead the 6-8 Jackets, who fell to 0-2 in district action.
Huff and Noah each hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Bears took a 20-14 lead despite depending almost entirely on 3s with two of 13 shots taken inside the 3-point line.
The game turned into a rout midway through the second quarter as the Bears started shooting at a blazing pace. HCHS connected on 14 of 16 shots in the period as Noah connected on all six, Huff hit four of five and Jaycee Carter connected on three of three. The Bears outscored Middlesboro 36-19 in the quarter and led 56-33 at the break.
The Bears cooled off slightly in the third period, hitting 12 of 18 shots, including back-to-back dunks by Noah and Cottrell. Huff’s 3 with 3:50 left in the period pushed the lead to 78-42 and started a running clock. Harlan County led 87-49 after three quarters, and reserves finished the game for both teams.
Harlan County returns to action Saturday at South Laurel, taking on defending 8th Region champ Woodford County in the Raymond Reed Classic. Middlesboro plays host to Pineville on Tuesday.