TUESDAY NIGHT HIGHLIGHTS

The Corbin Redhounds couldn’t put the South Laurel Cardinals away Tuesday night despite holding a 16-point lead early in the third quarter. A rally by the Cardinals saw the Redhounds have to fight for their lives to get out of Gilliam Gym with a 56-55 win.

The district win allowed Corbin to take an early lead for the top spot in the 50^th District race as all three other teams have suffered early season losses.

Thanks to three pointers by Brody Freeman and Isaac Wilson the Redhounds took a 15-10 lead at the first stop. Corbin expanded that lead to 31-18 by halftime as the Redhounds hit six three-pointers in the first half.

A three-point play by Madison Johnson gave the Redhounds its biggest lead of the night at 16 points, 34-18. A basket by Wilson matched the lead, 36-20 before the Cardinals went on a 14-0 run. A basket by Matthew Gilbert pulled the Cardinals within two (36-34) before Corbin scored again. The Redhounds went five minutes in the period without scoring.

Corbin managed to get the lead back out to four (40-36) by the end of the quarter.

That set up a battle to the end of the horn in the fourth quarter. It was Johnson and Aaron Manns taking charge late in the period. Johnson pushed the Corbin lead out to six (51-45) before Matthew Gilbert and Kevin Kahn tied the game with six straight points. A basket by Gilbert with 3:05 had the game deadlocked at 51-51.

Johnson hit a pair of free throws to push Corbin back on top before South Laurel tied the game for the second time. Manns then gave Corbin a one-point lead, but a pair of free throws by Sanders put the Cardinals on top for the first time in the game.

Manns answered for the Redhounds with a basket inside. That basket turned out to be the game winner.

After a time out by the Cardinals, Karr took a shot that rimmed off. Freeman was fouled with :13 left in the game, but missed both free throws. The Cardinals tried to get the winning shot, but Karr missed once again at the buzzer.

However, a foul had been called with .4 seconds left and Johnson went to the line. He missed both shots, but South Laurel didn’t have time to get off the winning basket as the horn sounded.

“I didn’t really like the way we started out,” said Corbin Coach Tony Pietrowski. “We were very impatient and took some bad shots. We started to do some of the things we wanted in that last 12 minutes.”

“We went in at half with the big lead and talked about that they were going to do,” said Pietrowski. “We got impatient and didn’t do a very good job. We played very rushed and didn’t look at the ball reversals.”

“We didn’t play very poised and let them get back into the game,” Pietrowski said. “We held our composure in the end and made enough plays to get a district win. We will sure enjoy this one.”

Johnson led the Redhounds with 16 points while Wilson added 14 points and Manns scored 11 points. Matt St. John led the Cardinals with 17 points.

Whitley rolls

The Whitley County Colonels rolled to a 75-37 win over the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets at WHS.

The Colonels broke the game open in the first quarter with a 14-0 run to close out the first quarter. With the teams tied at 8-8, the Colonels scored the next 21 points and led 29-8 before Williamsburg scored their 10th point of the game.

Jordan Akins, who finished the game with 20 points led the Colonels in the early going as well as senior Jamie Lebanion.

The Colonels led 43-14 at the half and 58-25 at the end of the third quarter.

Lebanion finished with 12 points while Jeremy Daniels added 13 points.

Corbin 56, South Laurel 55

Corbin       15  16    9  16- 56

South Laurel  10    8  18  19- 55

   Corbin (56) – Johnson 16, Manns 11, Wilson 14, Sizemore 6, Freeman 5, Taylor 2.

   South Laurel (55) – Watkins 11, Gilbert 15, St. John 17, Kahn 6, Sanders 4, Huff 2.

Whitley Co. 75, Williamsburg 37

Whitley Co.    22  21  15  17- 75

Williamsburg   8    6  11  12- 37

   Whitley Co. (75) – Daniels 12, Lebanion 12, Crawford 6, Harris 3, Akins 20, Ponder 5, Petrey 8, Paul 2, Goins 7.

   Williamsburg (37) – Lovett 6, Barton 13, Jones 5, Pettit 8, Fleenor 2, Smoak 3.