WISE — The defending champions are still alive in the PVB Holiday Hoops Classic at the David J. Prior Convocation Center. The Pioneers took another step in defending their title by defeating Shelby Valley, Kentucky, 79-60 in quarterfinal play on Thursday.
After taking only four shots in the opening-round win over Ridgeview, the plan was to go inside to 6-foot-4 post Mike Reece against the Wildcats. Reece delivered with 21 points, 13 boards, five assists and two steals.
“We all shot well last night, so I’m not complaining,” Reece said. “We have a great team, so any night, someone can be on, so it doesn’t matter who shoots it. Any of the guys are capable of a big night, I just felt good tonight.”
Lebanon had an excellent start, leading 23-14 after eight minutes of play. They approached five minutes at the start of the second quarter without scoring, allowing Shelby Valley to get back in the game. After the tough stretch, the Pioneer clung to a 33-31 lead at the break.
“We’ve done that quite a bit, a lot of it is, we just stop running our offense,” Lebanon coach Scotty Boyd said. “We do too much iso ball during that time, but that’s on me to see we don’t go through those spells. We had a mixed lineup there; we ended the first quarter on a nice spurt, and some of those guys were tired, and we went with some different people at the start of the second, and it broke our rhythm.”
They started the third quarter going in the paint to Reece, who put in a baby hook to get things rolling. They were up six less than three minutes into the third.
“Shelby Valley has a good team, so outscoring them 46-29 in the second half, is good,” Boyd said. “I thought there were some things we could do better, it was about fight and guts.
“Shelby Valley came out in the second quarter and cut it to two. We challenged the guys at halftime to be tougher, we felt they were more physical. We definitely matched that in the second half.”
The Pioneers turned their defense up a notch midway through the third and went on a 14-0 run to take control. They held a 57-40 advantage going to the fourth quarter and were never threatened from that point.
“You have to make shots,” Shelby Valley coach Tyler McCoy said. “To set up your defense you have to make shots. Our effort was there in spots, but for the first time this season I question our effort in this game.
“No excuses but we’ve been bitten by the injury bug lately. We’ve lost two key players and we’re going through some growing pains.”
Lebanon forced 19 miscues, led by Hunter Musick with three steals, outscoring the Wildcats 20-4 off turnovers. The Pioneers also had a 30-20 advantage scoring in the paint, most of that due to Reece.
“Reece had a good night,” commented Boyd. “We wanted to emphasize getting him on the block and getting him the ball. We started the game doing that; we started the second half with it; he does a lot of things and is an all-around player.”
It opened things up for Lebanon with Andy Lambert (18 points) and Brody Wess (14) taking advantage by getting drives to the basket. Musick had a big night, coming off the bench to score 10 points.
“We were able to spread the floor,” Boyd said. “We wanted to take advantage of a couple of different matchups we had. Andy had a big spurt in the fourth quarter. We had 22 assists, we’re sharing the ball, we’re moving the ball. We’re preaching to these guys to be selfless, move the ball, and it will come back to you.”
The Wildcats were led by junior Ethan Sykes, who totaled 21 points in the loss.
“My hats off to number one (Sykes), we tried everything against him,” remarked Boyd. “Brody Wess did a heck of a job defending him, his points were tough shots and contested, but he hit a lot of them. I thought Brody played his butt off defending him.”