LOUISVILLE — The South Laurel Cardinals showed why they’re the front-runners in the 13th Region by overcoming a nine-point deficit to defeat No. 3 Louisville Trinity, 51-49, in first round action of the King of the Bluegrass.
“Great Team win,” South Laurel coach Jeff Davis said. “Guys could’ve folded but they kept grinding and gave themselves a chance. Had a lot of guys do a lot of little things that were huge for us.”
The Cardinals (5-0) scored only 11 points in the first half, but continued to battle throughout.
They fell behind 5-4 at the end of the first quarter, and 19-11 at halftime before facing a 30-23 deficit with eight minutes remaining.
Jordan Mabe’s layup with 1:09 remaining in the fourth quarter capped off a 9-0 run while giving South Laurel a 38-37 lead over the Shamrocks.
Trinity’s Jayden Johnson followed with a free throw to tie the game at 38 apiece with 1:03 left.
A 3-pointer by Xavier Crosby with 33 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter gave the Shamrocks a 41-38 lead.
But Mabe answered with a 3-pointer of his own at the 20.8 second mark, tying the game at 41 apiece.
The two teams traded baskets to begin overtime while two free throws by Josiah Lawson gave Trinity a 49-48 edge with 1:30 left.
A steal and layup by Josh Steele gave the Cardinals a 50-49 advantage with 40.3 seconds remaining. South Laurel added a free throw to secure the win.
There were eight lead changes and three ties in the game.
The Cardinals shot 20-of-41 from the floor after hitting on only 4-of-16 shot attempts in the first half. They were 12-of-20 in the second half and a near-perfect 4-of-5 in overtime.
South Laurel out-rebounded Trinity, 28-24, while limiting the Shamrock to 15-of-44 shooting from the floor.
Mabe came up huge scoring over half of the Cardinals’ points, finishing with a game-high 26 on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor. Steele added 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting while Colton Rawlings delivered six points, eight rebounds and three assists. Kaiden McQueen added two points.
