A fourth road trip to a fourth different region resulted in a fourth road win Thursday for the Harlan County Black Bears, who were pushed the final minute for the first time this season in a 68-62 victory over Lafayette.
“Any time you can go to Lexington you will definitely get challenged. It was good for our group to play against a physical, quick and athletic team to challenge our press offense,” Harlan County coach Michael Jones said. “It showed us things we need to work on. We were fortunate to get a win. To go on the road and play a Lexington team on their floor and for it to go down to the wire and find a way to win says a lot about our group.”
Trent Noah and Maddox Huff scored 16 each and Tyler Cole added 14 for the 5-0 Bears.
All 62 points for the Generals were scored by the nine seniors on the roster. Torri Turner led the way with 16 points. Will Stanfield scored 10.
Lafayette led 17-14 after one quarter, but HCHS fought back to pull even at halftime at 31-all as Jackson Huff hit two 3-pointers and Daniel Carmical added one for the Bears.
Harlan County took the lead in the second quarter as Noah scored seven points and Maddox Huff added two 3-pointers to put the Bears up 52-47.
“Maddox was huge tonight. He’s capable of scoring like that,” Jones said. “What I liked was he was active defensively, while also getting seven rebounds. We needed that from him, especially tonight.”
Noah hit five of six free throws as part of a nine-of-12 effort in the fourth quarter for the Bears as HCHS held off the Generals’ comeback bid.
Harlan County will play host to Madison Southern on Saturday in a 4 p.m. game.
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Lafayette claimed a 59-22 win in junior varsity action.
Sophomore guard Jeremiah Clem led the 1-2 Bears with 10 points. Caleb Johnson scored four, followed by Ethan Rhymer with three, Jared Rhymer and Bradley Halcomb with two each and Tristan Cooper with one.