Simon Kenton’s boys basketball team started the season 5-11, but the Pioneers have completely turned things around down the stretch.
With a 58-53, 8th Region tournament quarterfinal win over the defending
champions Woodford County, Simon Kenton has now won six of their last eight
games. This was the most impressive one yet.
“We’re just playing together, knowing who we are and what our game is,” Pioneers
coach Trent Steiner said. “You play the schedule we play, the teams that we play,
you become resilient. We’ve grown up a lot.”
Simon Kenton built a 15-point lead early, relinquished it late and hung on from there thanks to a 9-1 run late in the game.
It was 42-33 Simon Kenton in the third quarter before the Yellow Jackets went on a 10-0 run, giving them a 43-42 lead in the fourth quarter. Down 45-44 with three minutes to play, the Pioneers resilience kicked in, scoring nine of the next 10 points for a 53-45 lead with 43 seconds to play.
“Though we played within ourselves for the most part, I felt we got outside of
ourselves,” Steiner said, “Make sure you play the next play. Sometimes high school
kids forget that, but I thought we did in the end.”
Travis Krohman was a gamechanger for the Pioneers. He scored 11 of his 24 points
in the first quarter and six more in the final three minutes of the game. He also hit
four triples.
“It’s mainly my teammates,” Krohman said, “Our screens were really good in the
first half. Woodford County switched up in the second half, so I had to get to the rim,
but first half I got good looks from the outside.”
Along with Krohman’s six points in the vital run, Jordan Bach scored five in the final Pioneer run, including a huge three that stretched the lead to a two-possession game, 49-45 with just under two minutes remaining.
Bode Stone was force in the paint the entire game, scoring 16 points, including a
stretch of eight straight in the third quarter. Jay Bilton added on nine.
“Bode has grown up a lot this year,” Steiner said. “We go at each other a lot, but I
need him. He’s had to step into a big role. Last year, he practiced against a 7-foot-3
Gabe Dynes, who’s now playing in the Horizon League, is All-Defensive team
and All-Freshman team. That made Bode better every day.”
Simon Kenton started the game with the lead, 19-9 after the first eight minutes.
“A couple key possessions early.” Woodford County head coach, Jaron Brown said,
“We had a bad first quarter. They came out on fire. Credit to Simon Kenton, they’re a
great team and shot well tonight.”
The Yellow Jackets cut the deficit back to single digits before halftime, 28-19, due to
a 6-0 run in the final two minutes. They outscored the Pioneers 21-14 in the third
quarter, but still trailed 42-40. Despite taking the lead, their dry spell in the fourth
period would be too much for them to overcome.
Woodford County, who made the state semifinals last season, saw a different ending
to this season. Their season comes to close at 24-7. Santonio Waide led the Yellow
Jackets with 16 points. Layton Starks had 15, and Jaunte Jenkins scored 10.
Simon Kenton improves to 17-15 overall and will go to the 8th Region tournament
semifinals for the second season in a row, where they will take on a talented North
Oldham team, Monday at 6:30 p.m.
“We’ve got 64 minutes to Rupp.” Steiner said, “We’re one of four teams left. We will see what happens.”
PIONEERS 58, YELLOW JACKETS 53
SIMON KENTON — 19-9-14-16 — 58
WOODFORD COUNTY — 9-10-21-13 — 53
Scoring
Simon Kenton (58) — Krohman 24, Stone 16, Bilton 9, Bach 7, Brown
2
Woodford County (53) — Waide 16, Starks 15, Jenkins 10, Jointer 5,
Wade 5, Asher 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Simon Kenton 5, Woodford County 1
Free Throws: Simon Kenton 9/15, Woodford County 8/12
Fouls: Simon Kenton 13, Woodford County 13
Records: Simon Kenton 17-15, Woodford County 24-7
