CORBIN — You could break out all the March Madness cliches Thursday after Harlan County survived a massive scare in the first round of the 13th Region Tournament at The Corbin Arena. Harlan County, unbeaten against 13th Region competition and ranked fourth in the state in the RPI system, had to survive and advance with a 38-34 victory over South Laurel.
South Laurel (19-11) controlled the tempo all the way in a defensive struggle the Cardinals are known for under coach Jeff Davis, but it was the Bears who won down the stretch with the defense. After a Colton Rawlings 3-pointer gave the Cardinals a 30-27 lead with seven minutes left, Harlan County held South scoreless until Jordan Mabe hit a 3 with 8.9 seconds left to pull the Cardinals within two with 10 seconds to play.
“You have to win one like that, and you may to win more than one like that. That’s the way it is in tournament time,” Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “All of our guys made big plays when it counted whether it was a basket or a rebound or diving on the floor for a loose ball. That’s the kind of effort we have to have to get where we want to go. We didn’t score a lot of points, but we proved tonight we can lock up and guard people.”
Senior guard Trent Noah scored 18 points to lead the 29-4 Bears, including two free throws with 4.2 seconds left to clinch the win. Maddox Huff added 10 points.
Junior forward Jordan Mabe paced the 19-11 Cardinals with 14 points.
South Laurel took its first lead at 7-5 on a basket by Coltonj Rawlings, but the Bears responded with a 5-0 run to close the quarter on a three-point play by Noah and two baskets from Huff.
Harlan County hit only one of seven shots from the field in the second quarter as the Cardinals pulled even at halftime on two free throws each by Jordan Steele and Rawlings.
Carter had the first two baskets of the second half for the Bears and Huff scored in the lane as the Bears took a 21-17 lead. Two Mabe baskets pulled the Cards even before Noah’s 3 made it 24-21 in favor of HC. Jordan Steele and Josh Steele each had baskets in the final 71 seconds of the period to put South on top 27-26.
After South went up by four, Jaycee Carter started a 9-0 run with a 3-pointer. Noah scored the next five points, the only five points over a four-minute stretch. Huff hit one of two at the line with 58.8 second left to make it 35-30. Rawlings hit one of two with 40 seconds left, then Noah hit one of two with 19 seconds remaining. Mabe’s 3 made it a two-point game, then the Bears made what almost turned into a fatal mistake with a bad inbounds pass that South stole. Mabe’s potential game-winning 3 was off the mark before Noah hit two at the line to put the game away.
Harlan County will play the Pineville/Clay County winner on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinals.
