The Lloyd Memorial players came out of the locker room with their all black attire on.
“We all got all black. We all dressed up. Funeral,” EJ Walker said.
EJ Walker and the Juggernauts had a funeral proceeding for Beechwood 32 minutes prior with a 59-30 victory over the Tigers in the boys 9th Region basketball tournament at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena.
Lloyd is on to Sunday’s semifinals as they took home Monday’s victory in dominant fashion. They outrebounded Beechwood 37-22 and went on a 23-3 run from the middle of the second quarter and into the third.
“Wow, really? Didn’t know that,” Juggernauts head coach Michael Walker said. “We did our job defensively. We were patient, moved the ball inside-out and got back to being us sharing the basketball and everyone contributing.”
Beechwood wanted to pack things in and make Lloyd earn this one from the outside. The Juggernauts shot the Tigers out of the zone with four first half 3-pointers. As Beechwood was looking to gain its ground after a rough offensive start, Lloyd quickly answered.
The Tigers trailed 13-5 after one, but a Carson Blackburn layup followed by an Owen McCormack 3-pointer got them within 16-11 early into the second. It was pretty much all Lloyd from there, a 23-3 spurt turning it into a 39-14 game halfway into the third quarter.
“We get it to five there and they come back and hit consecutive 3-pointers,” Tigers coach Ross Hart said. “That really just kind of hit us and I should have called timeout there and I didn’t and regretting it now. Credit to Lloyd, they hit their shots there and built that lead and it kind of took us out of everything we wanted to do there in the second half trying to play comeback.”
The Tigers responded with an 8-1 run to get it to 39-20, but would get no closer than 18 from there.
EJ Walker was the driving force in the rebounding discrepancy, pulling down 13 rebounds to go with his 15 points.
“Before the game our goal was to outrebound them by 12 and there you have it,” Walker said. “Most teams have been running zone on us and trying to pack things in, I’m really trying to get offensive and defensive rebounds to be more effective instead of just trying to score all the time.”
Anthony Blaackar added 12 points as nine different Juggernauts scored. Isaiah Sebastian put up nine points and seven rebounds, Carter Bresser stretching the floor with a couple 3-pointers and eight points with Elijah Collins added seven points. Lloyd tallied 10 steals, Blaackar with four, Walker with three.
Now they’re on to Sunday’s semifinals to face Newport, the Wildcats handing the Juggernauts their last loss on Feb. 15 in a 71-48 Newport triumph. It’s a rematch of last year’s semifinals and Lloyd’s third straight trip to the region semifinals. Prior to this stretch, they hadn’t won a region tournament game since 2012.
Beechwood’s season comes to an end at 16-16. They rallied down the stretch to get to .500, finishing the season 8-4 with a roster that didn’t have much varsity experience. They’ll use this experience as a learning tool, returning all but three players to next year’s team, quite the difference from last season when they got to this point and lost nearly all their production.
“I told the team we brought back 20% of our scoring coming into this year and last time I checked we bring back 84% going into next season,” Hart said. “I told the guys I’m tired of coming here and losing. We’ve got to raise the ceiling. It’s not just getting to NKU, it’s getting to NKU and winning. That’s our goal moving forward.”
Blackburn led the Tigers with 10 points, McCormack with eight and Jack Sullivan finishing with six. They’ll graduate three seniors, Quinn Eviston, Rett Dawson and Logan Smith.
JUGGERNAUTS 59, TIGERS 30
BEECHWOOD — 5-9-8-8 — 30
LLOYD MEMORIAL — 13-17-12-17 — 59
Scoring
Beechwood (30) — Blackburn 10, McCormack 8, Sullivan 6, Eviston 2, Navin 2, Fryman 1, Brockett 1
Lloyd (59) — Walker 15, Blaackar 12, Sebastian 9, Bresser 8, Collins 7, Golsby 3, Lewis 2, Jackson 2, Humphrey 1
Game Stats
Field Goals: Beechwood 12/43, Lloyd 20/46
3-Pointers: Beechwood 2/16, Lloyd 6/16
Free Throws: Beechwood 4/8, Lloyd 13/16
Rebounds: Beechwood 22, Lloyd 37
Assists: Beechwood 5, Lloyd 13
Turnovers: Beechwood 14, Lloyd 12
Steals: Beechwood 5, Lloyd 10
Blocked Shots: Beechwood 2, Lloyd 4
Fouls: Beechwood 15, Lloyd 11
Records: Beechwood 16-16, Lloyd Memorial 25-8