Even as they have rolled to 15 wins in their first 18 games to earn a ranking as one of Kentucky’s top high school basketball teams, the Bell County Bobcats haven’t forgotten the team that has knocked them out of a 52nd District championship each of the past two years.
“At the end of the day, Harlan County owns this district, and we’ve reminded our kids that early and often,” Bell County coach Brad Sizemore said in the preseason.
The Bobcats demonstrated Wednesday in the first meeting between the two teams this season they are hungry to end the Bears’ three-year run as district champs with a dominating 78-40 victory.
“This was a good win, and this is a hard place to play,” Sizemore said. “I feel our guys may have been a little nervous early in the game, but we settled down. Harlan County has a nice team, and we’ll have to be ready to go next time. We put some pressure on ourselves with how big a game this is. I thought we did some really good things, but our message all year has been we’re only as good as our last game. It will never be an easy game when we play Harlan County.”
“We knew they were a really good team. They are ranked in the top 15 in the state, and deservedly so. They have a lot of experience,” Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “I thought the first quarter was the difference. When we’re playing a team like them you can’t miss easy shots, and we did that. I felt the first quarter was a killer. We couldn’t buy one.”
Freshman guard Braxton Ferguson led the Bobcats with a 27-point performance that was as close to perfect as you’ll see. He hit all eight shots from the field, all eight free throw attempts and all three 3-point attempts.
“He played really well,” Sizemore said. “We feel we have multiple guys who can get going offensively. If you key on Ethan (Buell) and Blake (Burnett) it opens it up for other guys. Braxton is a tough matchup for people because he has made a lot of improvement in getting to his spots. He has really been coming on the last couple of weeks. We had several guys who stepped up on both ends.”
“I was real impressed with Ferguson,” added Jones. “I’ve seen him on film, but this was the first time in person this year. He has a chance to be a special player. I thought we did a good job on the other guys, but he just killed us. I don’t think he missed.”
Burnett tossed in 16 points for the Bobcats, while Thomas and Buell added 11 each.
Bell has excelled defensively all season long and had another big night against the Bears as HC junior guard Trent Cole was limited to one basket and three points,
“That’s been our focus all year trying to take the other team’s best player away, and I thought we did a good job of it. Jaxon (Thomas) did a really good job on him,” Sizemore said. “They beat us to some long rebounds in the first half, and we gave up some second chance points. I thought a little of our struggles early were being out with snow days. We looked a little lethargic. Our guys regrouped and made some shots
The Bears’ chances were dealt a blow when senior guard Reggie Cottrell went out in the second quarter with a head injury as he went down during a battle for a rebound and did not return to the game.
“It means a lot if he’s out there. We were being precautionary,” Jones said. “We kept playing hard. We just have to keep getting better. They were one of the top two or three teams we’ve played this year. They played well and we missed shots and it kind of snowballed from there.”
Harlan County (12-7) had no one in double figures with sophomore guard Kaden Jones and sophomore center Tucker Curtis each scoring nine points to lead the Bears.
The Bears missed six of their first seven shots as Bell went on a 12-0 run behind Ferguson and Buell to take a 14-2 lead. Curtis provided a lift off the bench for HC with three baskets in the final two minutes to cut the deficit to 20-10 after one quarter.
Bell hit six of eight shots in the second quarter, led by Ferguson with three baskets and Burnett with two, to build a 40-19 lead at the break. Harlan County missed 11 of 12 shots in the quarter.
Consecutive 3s from Thomas and Ferguson started a running clock with 1:50 left in the third quarter. Bell hit 10 of 13 shots in the period, led by four of four from Thomas and three of four from Burnett, to take a 67-33 lead into the final period.
Both teams return to action Friday as the 16-3 Bobcats travel to Middlesboro and the Bears play host to Harlan.