FALMOUTH — When one thinks of Robertson County they think of Justin Becker.
What he’s able to provide the Black Devils on a nightly basis speaks for itself, second in the state in scoring, in the top 10 in rebounding.
So when the Black Devils went into the half up 31-19 on Nicholas County in the first round of the 38th District Tournament, Becker had four points.
“Walked in at halftime and told the guys we’re up 12 points, the second leading scorer in the state has only got four and we got nine turnovers,” Black Devils coach Aaron Massey said. “If we limited those turnovers we’d continue to have control of the game.”
The supporting cast around Becker had one if their best games of the season, four players hitting double figures as the Black Devils advanced to their fourth straight regional tournament with a 74-64 victory over the Bluejackets.
Jacob Burden had a career-high 20 points off the bench, Massey opting to switch Burden to the bench while Noah Bussell, who also had a career-high with eight points, into the starting rotation.
“Did that against Calvary in the last game of the season and wanted to get Noah on (Wyatt) Clark and just make his life miserable. He did an excellent job with that and Jacob Burden came off the bench and I feel like he’s sometime more comfortable coming out. Best night to get a career-high,” Masey said.
Burden came in averaging six points a game, Bussell 1.3.
Joshua Pilosky added 15, hitting five 3-pointers on the night, Pilosky the other lone player besides Becker to play significant minutes in a game of this magnitude with the season on the line.
“I was passing up open shots early on in the season. Coach Massey had a talk with us and told us we can’t win if Justin is averaging 50 and we’re not doing much. Had to help him out a little bit, had a team meeting at the beginning of the year and this expectation was one of them, making a district championship and try to make a run in region,” Pilosky said. “We should have been playing like this all year. We all believe in each other.”
His three 3-pointers in the third helped the Black Devils continue to create separation, building their lead to as large as 22 in the third.
“Josh has always been a pure shooter. Last year he struggled a little bit and this year at the beginning he kind of slumped off a little bit, but he’s come back the past few games. When he can knock those shots down we can be a tough team to beat because it takes some pressure off Justin,” Massey said.
Brady Boyd was the third Black Devil in double figures, tallying 10 points to go with 11 rebounds.
Oh and Becker, he’d get 14 in the second half to finish with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The Black Devils led wire-to-wire, Becker opening the game with a fadeaway jumper off a double team. The attention as usual from the opponent was on him, Becker continually finding his teammates and them coming through, collecting seven of the team’s 17 assists.
The Bluejackets just struggled to get any sort of rhythm, Robertson’s length playing a big factor in that and winning the rebounding battle 39-22 and limiting Nicholas to one shot the majority of the night.
“Their length was an issue. Our eighth grader (Preston Blake) is our tallest kid at 6-foot-3. Their length bothered us. The first time we played them we rebounded the ball very well, this time around it was a little bit lopsided. Second, third chance opportunities killed us,” Bluejackets coach John Michael Reitz said.
Next up comes Harrison County, a team that’s beat them by 36 both times they played them. The task will be a lot taller come Friday night in the 38th District championship, but if the supporting cast can show up like they did Wednesday night, the game figures to be a lot tighter.
“We’re going to come out swinging and we’re going to come in expecting to win the game,” Massey said. “They’ve got the height and the length. We’ll work on a gameplan, put something together and hopefully shock the district Friday night,” Massey said.
Friday’s tip is set for 7 p.m.
The Bluejackets season ends at 10-19 as they were searching for their first trip to the 10th Region tournament since 2013. It will have to wait another year, but they return all but two players in their quest to do so.
“It’s a challenge when you’ve never really been in this position before. Trying to keep it as smooth as I can for these guys so they don’t feel that pressure. The first three or four minutes hurt us. How they got their points hurt us on how we could ever get back into the game,” Reitz said.
Wyatt Clark was named to the All-Tournament team, finishing with a game-high 26 points. Lincoln Morris added 12 points and six rebounds, Ethan Sexton adding nine.
BLACK DEVILS 74, BLUEJACKETS 64
NICHOLAS COUNTY — 7-12-19-26 — 64
ROBERTSON COUNTY — 16-15-25-18 — 74
Scoring
Nicholas (64) — Clark 26, Morris 12, Sexton 9, Donovan 6, Blake 4, Kiskaden 3, Watkins 2, Hatton 2
Robertson (74) — Burden 20, Becker 18, Pilosky 15, Boyd 10, Bussell 8, Gay 3
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Nicholas 7, Robertson 8
Free Throws: Nicholas 9/16, Robertson 10/19
Rebounds: Nicholas 22 (Morris 6), Robertson 39 (Becker, Boyd 11)
Turnovers: Nicholas 8, Robertson 19
Personal Fouls: Nicholas 15, Robertson 17
Records: Nicholas County 10-19, Robertson County 13-19
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