Bulldogs “claw” past Pike Central 73-59 to claim 60th District Championship

February 28, 2015

by Donnie Shapaka

Phelps, Ky— Lawrence County secured a #1 seed in the 15th region basketball tournament with a convincing 73-59 victory over Pike County Central last (Friday) night. The Bulldogs, competing in the 60th district for the first time, cruised to a double digit victory behind sophomore Timmy Dalton’s 26 points.

Dalton was one of three Bulldogs to reach double figures. Junior Brandon Richardson added 21 points ( 3 3-pointers), and teammate Grant Kiser turned in one of his best games of the season finishing with 18 points.

The Hawks jumped out to an early lead and led 15-12 at the end of the first quarter behind Blackburn who finished with 10 points and Elkins who chipped in 9 points of his own.

Lawrence County bounced back in the second quarter outscoring the Hawks 18-8 to to take the 30-23 halftime lead.

Pike Central came out of the locker room clicking on all cylinders as they cut the Bulldog lead to 3 but the Bulldogs found an answer. The Hawks outscored the Bulldogs 16-15 in the third quarter but still found themselves down 45-39 heading into the fourth quarter.

Things got heated up between the two rivals when Lawrence County sophomore Timmy Dalton was fouled hard on a fast break layup by Pike County Central’s Brad Elkins. Dalton remained on the floor under the basket as the referees tried to determine the result of the foul. The result was an intentional foul on Elkins and Dalton would eventually walk off under his own power. The Bulldog faithful thought a flagrant could should have been called but to no avail.

The Bulldogs used the fourth quarter to extend the lead even further scoring 27 points in the final quarter to win in admirable fashion 73-59.

The win sealed the 60th district championship for first year head coach Travis York and clinched a #1 seed in the 15th region tournament which will be held at the East Ky Expo Center in Pikeville, Ky this coming week.

Coach’s Comments…

” First of all I’m really happy with the way we are playing right now. We keep improving on defense, we played together as a team and thats what it takes at this point in the season,” York said.

York added, “Timmy is dominating games right now, Brandon was hitting shots and rebounding so well for us. Grant carried us especially in the first half. Grant was relentless taking the ball to the basket. Austin played great, he did what he always does and that’s run this offense. We got great minutes from Shawn, Tanner, Matt, and Alex. They all played a huge role in us winning the district. Robert didn’t get to play but was a leader on the bench cheering on his teammates.

It was a great atmosphere for high school basketball and I want to say thank you to all the fans, students, cheerleaders, faculty and staff for bringing all the energy. The team fed off it and that means a lot on the road. This isn’t just our championship, it’s the entire community’s. It feels good to be bringing a district championship back to Louisa.”

Thursday night the Bulldogs took out Belfry 64-47 in the first round of the tourney at Phelps.