Redhounds fall to Scott County in state tournament quarterfinals

The Corbin Redhounds ended their 2017-18 season Friday afternoon with a 73-62 loss to the Scott County Cardinals in the quarterfinal round of this year’s KHSAA state championship tournament at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

With the loss, the Hounds wrap up their historic season with a 26-8 overall record.

After the game, head coach Tony Pietrowski commented, “Obviously we’re disappointed with the loss, but I’m really proud of my kids, and the determination that they’ve shown throughout the year. We battled right to the end.”

When asked about his outgoing seniors – Bayley Rice, Braden Dickerson, Chandler Stewart and Andrew Taylor – Coach Pietrowski said, “It’s going to be hard to see these kids go. They’ve done a great job representing who we want to be, and they’ll all be missed by me.”

Speaking specifically about Taylor, who will leave Corbin as the program’s all-time leading scorer, Pietrowski said, “Andrew has been with me since eighth grade, and it’s going to be tough to see him go. He’s been a special kid to me, and when you start talking about where he ranks statistically in the state, it’s unbelievable.”

Pietrowski was complimentary of Scott County, who is led by his own former coach at Corbin, Billy Hicks. He said of the Cardinals, “They are a whale of a basketball team, and they have a really good chance to win this thing. We got better and better (this season), but we just faced a better opponent today. That’s part of basketball.”

Prior to Pietrowski’s comments Friday, Coach Hicks spoke about his former team, saying of the Redhounds, “You have to really give Corbin a lot of credit. Those kids played so hard, and Andrew Taylor is a heck of a basketball player. We had a big size advantage on them, but they just scrapped. It’s good to be able to win and go on, but in our system, when a team out-hustles and out-scraps us, it doesn’t make us look very good.”

Finally, Andrew Taylor spoke about his final game as a Hound, saying, “We were short of our goal, but I think we gained some respect. We were able to play with them, if not play better than them, for much of the game, but they are a good basketball team. They hit some shots when we didn’t. They made the plays. They have a lot of weapons.”

The Cardinals will now face Warren Central in the state tournament semifinals on Saturday. Meanwhile, Corbin begins the work of figuring out how to move forward into next season without their star player. Taylor’s younger brother, Matthew, will return to the team as a junior next winter, as will Ethan Wine, who has impressed this postseason with his contributions off the bench. Brody Barton, Chase Sanders and Cameron Maguet will be among the senior group that will look to get the Redhounds back to the state tourney in 2019.

Scott Co 73, Corbin 62
Scott Co 17 14 27 15 – 73
Corbin – 17 9 15 21 – 62
CHS – Barton 2, Sanders 15, Stewart 14, A. Taylor 25, M. Taylor 4, Unthank 2