George Rogers Clark wins 2OT thriller over Lincoln County to make Sweet 16 finals
Four quarters weren’t enough to decide which team would earn the first spot in the 2022 UK Healthcare Boy’s Sweet 16 championship. An extra four minutes wound up not being enough, either.
In what came down to the final possession, the No. 1 George Rogers Clark Cardinals (35-1) was able to fend off another upset bid by the No. 9 Lincoln County Patriots (31-7), 54-51, in a thrilling double-overtime contest inside of Rupp Arena on Saturday. As a result, GRC has locked up a bid in the title game, which is set for Saturday night at 7:00 PM. The Cardinals will take on the winner of the second semifinal game between No. 5 Warren Central and No. 3 Covington Catholic.
This will be the first trip to the Sweet 16 championship for GRC since the school was known as Clark County, which last won the state title back in 1951. A return to the championship sure didn’t come easy for the tournament favorites, either. The Cardinals had to gut out a physical slugfest win over No. 8 Pikeville on Friday just to reach this point.
“At the end of the day, you have to stay with your guys and just keep believing and believing, and believe there’s a purpose and a fate behind this that you’re going to be deserving,” GRC head coach Josh Cook said postgame. “In the end, these games are just making us more deserving.”
George Rogers Clark shot 37 percent from the field compared to just 34 percent from Lincoln County as defense again played a significant role in the outcome for the Cardinals. Both teams shot 3-15 from distance but it was an additional 12 points in the paint from GRC that proved to be the difference.
Lincoln County senior guard Jaxon Smith hit multiple big shots in the overtime periods for the Patriots, including a clutch, banked-in two-pointer that sent the game into a second extra frame. He even had a chance to force a third overtime, but his game-tying 3-pointer in the closing seconds came up just short. Smith finished his high school career with 14 points and six rebounds.
George Rogers Clark threw the first punch in the opening period, jumping ahead to an early 13-6 lead after eight minutes of action. GRC would win the second quarter as well, taking a 23-14 advantage into the halftime break as scoring was tough to come by from either side. But the game completely flipped out of the intermission.
Lincoln County blitzed GRC in the third quarter, winning those eight minutes 15-8. The Patriots trimmed a once 11-point Cardinals lead into a tie ballgame with just 27 seconds left in the third thanks to a made jumper from Clayton Davis. George Rogers Clark point guard Aden Slone would counter with a made jumper of his own that gave his squad a 31-29 lead into the final frame.
The fourth quarter saw both teams trading blow after blow. Neither squad jumped ahead by more than four points as Lincoln County eventually took its first lead since the opening period, 37-35, with under two minutes left in regulation. But a massive triple from GRC guard Sam Parrish, who finished with a team-high 16 points on 6-13 shooting, pushed the Cardinals back in front by one.
“Sam’s got that ultimate gift in that he believes the next shot is going in. And he’s not afraid to shoot it. He will shoot it,” Coach Cook said of Parrish. “It was a great pass, great find, and having confidence there to stop in and make that shot, it’s just tremendous. And honestly, it was like slow-motion me watching the ball go up. Is it gonna go in? Is it gonna go in?”
Tramane Alcorn, who appeared to turn his ankle at one point, would add a free-throw for Lincoln County as the game ultimately went into the first overtime tied at 38.
Four clutch free throws from Slone throughout the first OT nearly put the game away for the Cardinals, but Smith drained two critical jumpers in the closing 15 seconds to shock the Rupp Arena crowd into a second overtime. Four more necessary free-throws and a timely jumper from the senior Slone pushed George Rogers Clark back in front by three points with just six seconds left on the game clock.
Smith’s clutch shot-making would finally run out of luck though, as he missed the potential game-tying triple at the buzzer.
“The stress is always there, but like I said yesterday, I was praying, and I’ve been in that situation the day before so there was not really much pressure,” Slone said of his big free-throws down the stretch.
GRC junior guard Jerone Morton finished with 11 points and four rebounds while Slone added 12 points of his own, including an 8-9 mark from the charity stripe. 6-foot-7 junior forward Trent Edwards posted seven points, 10 rebounds, and five blocks for the Cardinals. On the Lincoln County side, Alcorn led the Patriots with 19 points and seven rebounds.
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