PIKEVILLE – Pikeville battle its way into the boys’ 15th Region Tournament championship with a late second-half rally to escape Paintsville, 64-61, in a game played at the Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center March 1.
The Panthers, now 23-8, rallied from a 12-point, first-half deficit to take a three-point lead with 25 seconds to play. The Panthers had the lead only three times, all coming in the final period.
The Tigers, who saw their season end at 19-8, had a last-second three bounce off the rim that would have sent the game into overtime.
Pikeville will now face Johnson Central Saturday night for the third straight time in the tournament finals. The Golden Eagles eliminated Shelby Valley.
The official attendance for both games totaled 6,174 fans.
Christian Billiter led the Panthers with 19 points. He was unstoppable in the first half, keeping the Panthers within six at the break.
Connor Roberts finished with 15, including 11 after halftime, and Rylee Sammons tossed in 13.
Braxton Tharp tossed in a game-high 20 points for the Tigers and Nick Keeton finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
Saturday night’s championship game is set for 7:30 p.m.
At Pikeville
(15th Region semifinals)
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PV (19-8)….17 15 18 10 – 61
PK (23-8)….11 16 22 15 – 64
Scoring:
Paintsville (61) – Nick Keeton 5 4-6 14; Seth Williams 2(1) 1-2 8; Braxton Tharp 5(3) 1-1 20; Colby Fugate 1(2) 1-2 9; Brady Dingess 1(1) 3-4 8; Jaxon Watts 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15(7) 10-15 61.
Pikeville (64) – Kyle Watkins 1(1) 3-6 8; Christian Billiter 9 1-2 19; Connor Roberts 5(1) 2-3 15; Rylee Sammons 3(2) 1-1 13; Laithan Hall 1 1-2 3; Zac Lockhart 0(1) 0-0 3; and Connor Byers 1 1-2 3. Totals: 20(5) 9-16 64.