Late execution helps North Oldham grind out win in Sweet 16 slugfest
The Sweet 16 first-round game between Muhlenberg County and North Oldham will not go into the KHSAA hall of fame. However, that is just fine for David Levitch and his basketball program.
In their first-ever appearance at the Sweet 16, the 8th region champs had to grind out victory over a Muhlenberg County team that loves to play slow and turn games into a possession-by-possession affair.
After a low-scoring first half, the third quarter got ugly. Muhlenberg County held North Oldham to just two points on 1 of 9 shooting, but Muhlenberg County got just four points on 2 of 8 shooting. That opened the door for Levitch’s team to close with a 36-32 victory following a 14-6 win in the final quarter. The Mustangs of North Oldham now have the biggest win in program history.
North Oldham went for 14 points on nine shots with some big buckets from both Ian Higdon and Jack Scales in the final quarter with the latter draining a three-point field goal to give North Oldham a 34-32 lead with just over a minute left in the game. Those buckets would be the only shots made by the juniors in the game.
“I was proud of our guys,” Levitch told reporters after the game “It was a very, obviously, slow-paced game. Wasn’t pretty to watch or coach but at the end of the day, we got it done. We only allowed 10 points in the second half, and I thought we really got good stops when it mattered.
While the perimeter players struggled for North Oldham, junior big Luke Anderson went to work. The 6-foot-7 junior scored 12 points on seven field goal attempts with 11 rebounds, seven blocks, and two assists to give the Mustangs life as the rest of the team was just 11 of 36 (30.6%) from the floor.
Despite controlling the tempo of the game for most of the night, Muhlenberg County never led the contest by more than four points. No player for the Mustangs reached double-digits in the scoring column as Kyle Eades’ club scored just 32 points in 43 possessions. With the team struggling, Eades went to senior guard Trey Lovell in the final possession and his lay-up attempt was pinned by Anderson off the isolation drive. Lovell finished the game with just six points on 14 shots with four assists.
“I thought we did a really good job today establishing the tempo that we wanted,” said Eades. “We made it a half court game. We knew that we were going to have to be really good defensively and that we would have to keep them out of transition.”
Muhlenberg County was able to take star North Oldham guard Dallas Roberts out of the game as the 2023 D-I prospect had just 10 points on 11 shots, but it was the other players that came up big for North Oldham.
“We just kind of grinded it out,” said Levitch.
For the second year in a row, Muhlenberg County goes one-and-done at Rupp Arena as the Mustangs will have consecutive regional titles, but no wins in Rupp Arena to show for it.
North Oldham (18-12) now moves onto the quarterfinal and will face No. 9 Lincoln County (30-7) on Friday. The Patriots also are very good on the defensive end and defeated Jeffersontown in a slugfest on Thursday. Don’t be surprised if another defensive battle happens when the two winners meet.
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