44 Teams Left

Only five boys' basketball games yesterday, but a fair amount of drama:

1st Region Final (at Murray State Univ.):
McCracken Co. 43, Marshall Co. 42

Jackson Purchase twitter melted down over this game last night.  The two best basketball programs in the First Region met on Sunday afternoon in front of an enormous crowd at Murray State.  McCracken County swept Marshall in the regular season, winning 63-59 at Marshall on December 13, and winning 58-53 at home on January 10.  Yesterday's game, as often happens at the First Region Final, was a low-scoring, nerve-wracking affair.  Marshall County led 42-41, but was called for a foul with about two seconds left.  Rage and fury from the Marshall folks; two free throws and the lead for McCracken County.  Now Marshall has to go the length of the court.  They throw a long pass to half-court, where a Marshall player and a McCracken County player bump into each other going for the ball.  The Marshall player hits the floor and pleads for a foul.  No doing -- McCracken is going to state.  The place erupts with fans on both sides screaming and hollering.  And then everyone went home and argued about the officiating, the media, and pretty much every other aspect of Jackson Purchase life on Twitter.  And people say that tradition is dead.

5th Region Semi-Finals (at Taylor Co.):
(8) Elizabethtown 78, LaRue Co. 48
Bardstown 71, (5) John Hardin 63 (OT)

Spare a thought for John Hardin.  The Bulldogs didn't lose a game until January 21, winning the 2A State Tournament.  They were 30-3 going into yesterday, and were looking forward to a fourth game against E-Town in the regional final (they had gone 2-1 in the other three).  But instead they were upset by a red-hot Bardstown team that has lost only two games since December.  What a year for the Fifth Region.

Four of the 10 teams in the last AP poll -- (4) Lexington Catholic, (5) John Hardin, (7) Lex. Henry
Clay, and (9) South Laurel) -- have been eliminated.

14th Region Semi-Finals (at Knott Co. Cent.):
Wolfe Co. 74, Knott Co. Cent. 64
Hazard 65, Letcher Co. Cent. 38