WILLIAMSBURG — The 50th District’s top seed will be decided Friday when Corbin and Whitley County tip things off at Whitley County High School on Friday.
The Redhounds (13-7) enter the contest with a 4-1 mark against 50th District teams while the Colonels are 3-2 against district opponents.
If Corbin wins, the Redhounds will lock up the district’s top seed outright. A tie breaker will be in effect if Whitley County wins. If the Colonels win, they’ll own the tiebreaker because it would mark their second win of the season over Corbin.
Whitley County (18-5) won the first meeting between the two teams back on Jan. 26 with a 46-45 decision.
In the first meeting, the Colonels trailed 45-44 with under five seconds left when Bryce Anderson took the inbounds pass and drove upcourt before hitting a wide-open Lucas Queener in stride with the game winning layup with one second remaining in the game.
“Extremely proud of our guys,” Whitley County coach Eric Swords said after the game. “We played extremely hard and executed our game plan to perfection. We had a little let down after losing two close district games on the road, and started to doubt a little about how good we are. But this win should show our guys that what and how we are building is the right way. Corbin has a great team and staff. I have a lot of respect for Coach P, it’s a big win for us but at the same time it’s just another district game, we got bigger goals.”
Queener led the Colonels in scoring during the first meeting with 11 points while Danny Ellis added 10 points. Mahan and Bruce Anderson added nine points apiece. Jackson Petrey finished with seven points.
Zander Curry and Eli Pietrowski scored 12 points apiece for Corbin (12-5) while Trey Worley finished with nine points, and Conner Middleton scored eight points.
After the loss, Corbin coach Tony Pietrowski gave congratulations to the Colonels for their win.
“Congrats to Coach Swords and Whitley County,” Pietrowski said. “They outplayed and out coached us tonight. Ultimately deserving the win more than us. We never really played to the best of our abilities this evening. Too many mistakes, missed assignments and lack of execution.
“Hard pill to swallow but hope we are better for it down the road,” he added. “Often you can learn much more in a loss if you’re willing to take it on. Love my kids and our program. No one is going to feel sorry for the Redhounds.”
