WILLIAMSON — Class AAA No. 5 Scott snapped a two-game skid on Saturday night inside the historic Williamson Fieldhouse as they rallied in the second half to top Pike County Central (Kentucky) 65-53 in the 21st edition of the Hatfield McCoy Shootout.
The victory for the Skyhawks got them back into the win column and improved them to 11-7 on the season after they had dropped two tight games to ranked foe Charleston Catholic on Tuesday night and sectional rival Logan on Friday.
“We’ve got some guys coming back from injury and our chemistry has been a little off. We’ve not been playing the best basketball,” Scott coach Shawn Ballard said after the win. “We dropped two close, tough games this week against good teams. We definitely didn’t want to go 0-3 on the week, so this was a good one for us to get…Hopefully this can get us a step in the right direction to get things rolling.”
Scott’s Jayden Sharps got off to a hot start to begin the game as he ripped the nets for a trio of three-pointers in the first quarter and helped the Skyhawks jump out to a 13-11 lead.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the second quarter of action as they traded buckets and the lead on multiple occasions. Scott took its largest lead of the opening half after a trey from Issac Setser made it 34-29, but Pike Central’s Jaylen Rigdon sank a jumper to cut the lead back down to three going into the break.
Pike Central came out of the locker rooms energized as they started off the second half on a 9-0 run and surged ahead to a 38-34 lead after an old-fashioned three-point play from Peyton Compton.
Scott had an answer, however, as Setser then scored seven-straight points to give the Skyhawks the lead back for good as he sparked a 16-2 run for Scott and they ended the third quarter with a 50-40 lead after a corner three from Tyler Walls before the horn.
“He (Setser) does a lot for us,” Ballard said. “He pushes the ball. He facilitates and gets us into our stuff, he really sets the pace. There’s a big court here and we knew they had played the night before. So we really thought that getting out and running was going to be big tonight. We got some stops that allowed him to get the ball and push in transition. When we’re stopping people, we can get out and run, but when our defense isn’t getting stops, then we’re facing set defenses and it’s harder to run like we want to.”
Pike Central attempted to chip away at the lead in the fourth quarter but never could get any closer than eight points as Scott put the game away and left with a double-digit win.
The Skyhawks had a balanced attack with four players landing in double-figures, led by All-Stater Reece Carden’s 15 points. Sharps followed him with 14 points while Setser and big man Kadin Clemons each added 12 points.
Rigdon paced Pike Central with 19 points while Jaylen Stewart followed him with 18 and Compton tossed in 14.
Score by Quarters
PCHS: 11 18 11 13 — 53
SHS: 13 19 18 15 — 65
Scoring
PC: J. Rigdon 19, J. Stewart 18, P. Compton 14, P. Owens 2
S: R. Carden 15, J. Sharps 14, I. Setser 12 K. Clemons 12, T. Walls 6, L. Byrnside 4, O. Adkins 2
You can reach Matthew Britton at mbritton@hdmediallc.com or follow him @mbrittonhdmedia on Twitter.
