Bardstown Basketball

Long time coming

March 3rd, 2010 Posted in What's New?

By Peter W. Zubaty

Artie Braden has enjoyed a number of big firsts in his coaching career, and his first 19th District crown as head coach at Nelson County is one of the most special.

“It’s very good, especially with the way the guys have come together this year. Maybe we’re starting to peak at the right time,” he said.

Nelson County rolled to a 66-41 win over Bardstown in Saturday’s boys’ 19th District championship, the Cardinals’ first district title since 2004.

“I feel great,” Cardinal senior Demarcus Collins said. “I feel like we worked as a team, and we just executed and got down to business from the get-go.”

Collins scored six of his team-high 13 points while the Cardinals gradually seized control of the game during the first quarter and never trailed after the 5:43 mark of that frame, increasing its lead at each juncture while improving to 18-8 overall.

“We’ve just got to be consistent with what we do, and if we can do that, we’ve got a shot in this region,” Collins said.

Nelson County High School plays host to this week’s boys’ 5th Region tournament, which opens tonight at 6 p.m. with Campbellsville (24-4) facing Green County (13-14) at 6 p.m., and the Cardinals facing a tall Elizabethtown (11-16) club in the nightcap at 8 p.m.

The Cardinals and Panthers have not met each other this year, and their size is a concern for Braden.

“They really, really have a lot of size — they probably, overall, are the biggest team in the region based on what they put out on the floor,” he said.

And how does Nelson County, which is limited in the height category, counteract that?

“We pray a lot,” Braden chuckled. “I don’t know — we’ll just have to look at some tapes on them and figure out something.”

Despite the district loss, Bardstown (8-16) lives to fight another day. That next day is Thursday, when the Tigers face North Hardin (24-4) at 6 p.m. LaRue County (17-9) and Taylor County (17-13) meet at 8 p.m.

The Trojans are one of the region favorites, but they got a scare at home from the Tigers on the last weekend of the regular season before prevailing 65-63.

“Our kids always seem to play really well against North Hardin; I can’t really explain it,” Tiger coach Gary Goode said. “At this point, we weren’t going to get anyone in the region that wasn’t a tough opponent.”

Goode said the Trojans are most potent when they’re shooting well from the outside, which opens things up for them inside. In the previous meeting with the Tigers, all-region guard James Berry knocked down four from three-point land, but no other Trojans could connect.

“I hope we don’t catch them on a good shooting night,” Goode said.

Nelson County enters the region tourney on a hot streak, having won 10 of its last 11 games, and the Cardinals’ crisp offensive execution led to a good shooting night in the district championship.

“They’re a strong region contender if they shoot it like that,” Goode said.

Braden gave a lot of credit to his two-headed point guard attack of Josh Kays and Daniel Mudd for directing traffic on offense.

“I thought our point guards did an excellent job of getting us in our sets, even when the pressure was in their face, and from there it just seemed to flow,” he said.

While Bardstown struggled to find good looks against a sticky Nelson defense, the Cardinals were crisp and patient in their offense.

“Everybody’s making the extra pass and we’re executing our offense a whole lot better than the beginning of the year,” Mudd said. “We’re playing better defense, too. We’re taking other teams out of their comfort zone.”

Bryce Greer and Quentin Brooks added 12 apiece for Nelson County, while Nathan Hall’s 16 led Bardstown.

19th District championship at Bethlehem

Nelson Co. 66, Bardstown 41 — Cosby 3, C. Grundy 2, D. Grundy 2, N. Hall 16, McCarty 3, Coulter 1, K. Hall 3, Brooks 7, Hubbard 4.

• B 11 7 12 11—41
• NC 19 10 15 22—66
• B (41)
• NC (66) — Brooks 12, Kays 5, Collins 13, Adams 5, Martinez 7, Mudd 4, Greer 12, Railey 7, White 1