CORBIN — The 50th District seeding picture became even more complicated Thursday night following Corbin’s 64-47 home win over South Laurel.
The Cardinals (13-11) entered the night controlling their own destiny and could have locked up the district’s top seed with a win over the Redhounds. Instead, South Laurel got off to a slow start, trailing 20-11 at the end of the first quarter and 39-24 at halftime, and never fully recovered.
“Enjoyed celebrating our seniors tonight,” Corbin coach Tony Pietrowski said. “Eli and Lucas have been by my side since they could walk. They are two special kids that have done a lot for me and our program.
“We are very excited to get the win,” he added. “South has a tremendous team and a great coaching staff. Evan and Trey played really well tonight. We need that from the both of them. We are not naive enough to think this is the end all. We will more than likely see them in the first round of the district. We have a lot of improvements to make between now and then.”
The win improved Tony Pietrowski’s Corbin squad to 11-11 overall, while the Redhounds now join Whitley County and South Laurel with identical 4-2 district records.
“We didn’t do a good job of getting to the charity stripe tonight,” South Laurel coach Jeff Davis said. “We need to be more aggressive and not as passive. Thought the first quarter set the tone of the game and we just didn’t handle that very well. Proud of our guys effort and thought we kept fighting considering everything.”
With all three teams having completed district play, the tie will be broken by each team’s RPI rating at the end of the regular season.
If the season ended today, Whitley County would earn the top seed with a .58779 rating (as of press time), followed by South Laurel at No. 2 with a .56639 rating, and Corbin as the No. 3 seed with a .53130 rating. Williamsburg is locked into the No. 4 seed after finishing 0-6 in district play.
However, the race for the district’s top seed remains very much unsettled.
Whitley County still has road games remaining against North Laurel and Bell County. South Laurel’s remaining schedule includes road games at Knox Central and Bell County, along with home matchups against Lincoln County and Madison Central. Corbin will close the regular season with road contests at Wayne County, Leslie County, and Middlesboro, along with a home game against Barbourville.
In Thursday’s win, Evan Ellis led Corbin with 22 points, while Trey Person added 20. Eli Pietrowski finished with nine points and Clay Atkins chipped in seven.
Kaden Taylor led South Laurel with 16 points while Kaiden McQueen added eight.
