Julian Dixon took a long heave from beyond halfcourt for what would be the final shot of his career and made it.
The buzzer-beating shot may not have won the game for Walton-Verona or even sent the game into overtime, but it did signify how hard the Bearcats battled Spencer County in a 62-61 loss in the 8th Region semifinals at Henry County on Monday.
Walton-Verona had lost 76-43 at Spencer County on Feb. 9.
“I’m extremely proud of our guys,” Walton-Verona head coach Mike Hester said. “I think our five seniors showed exactly what our program is and what it’s about. It’s about fighting to the very end and never giving up, and that’s exactly what they did.”
Both teams tried to spread the ball out, find mismatches, attack the rim and make things happen off the drives. Spencer County made a few more plays to make it back to the region championship for the first time since 2011 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Simon Kenton.
“We feel we have good inside guys that can shoot the ball well,” Spencer County head coach Jason Burns said. “We have so many options it’s kind of pick your poison. It makes it easier on me when we have guys that can drive it, put it in the hole, post up. That’s the biggest thing. We can put five guys out there that can score.”
Walton-Verona struggled stopping Spencer County seniors Luke Erhardt and Camden Cox in the first half. Erhardt finished with 16 points with Cox and Jack Armstrong scoring 10 points each to lead the Bears.
“We talked about it at halftime they were killing us inside the paint. They were getting easy buckets,” Hester said. “We had to make sure that we kept Erhardt and Cox out of the paint. We did a better job in the second half and we also did a better job rebounding. One of our focuses was limiting their second chance opportunities.”
Seniors Aaron Gutman and Julian Dixon led the Walton-Verona charge scoring 26 and 13 points, respectively, with Max Montgomery adding 11. The Bearcats made 10 three-pointers and 11-of-14 free throws. Gutman made four 3-pointers and Montgomery hit three.
Spencer County’s 10-4 run to close the first had them up 19-13 after one.
Spencer County extended the lead to 28-18 with 4:02 left in the first half before the Bearcats went on a run to cut it to five twice led by two Gutman dunks. The Bears responded with a 5-0 run to finish the half up 37-27 after Keaton Baird slammed one home off a turnover.
The Bearcats cut into the lead in the third quarter finishing it with an 8-4 run to make it 48-43 Spencer County.
The Bearcats took their first lead of the game in the first minute of the fourth quarter at 49-48 after Gutman and Landon Bach hit consecutive threes. They took it once more after that, but kept things interesting until the clock struck zero.
Gutman made another three with 1:17 left to make it 60-58 Spencer County. After an Armstrong free throw with 39.6 seconds left, Gutman put up a three from the left corner, but it missed and Spencer County grabbed the rebound. Brady Smith made a free throw at the other end to give the Bearcats a 62-58 lead.
“We knew they were switching so we knew we wanted to run something that would hopefully prevent them from switching,” Hester said. “They made a great play defensively. They were able to swallow it up. Aaron had a guy underneath him and unfortunately didn’t get it to drop. Next time, I probably have to do a better job drawing something up. But we’ll live with it.”
Hester just completed his fifth season guiding the Bearcats (23-11). He pointed out the win total has improved every year with the five seniors in Dixon, Gutman, Montgomery, Zach Smith and Sawyer Webster there all the way.
Walton-Verona made it back to the All “A” State Tournament and 8th Region Tournament after missing both last year. The Bearcats lost to Lyon County in the All “A” State quarterfinals before beating Owen County, 52-46 on Thursday for the program’s first region tournament win since winning the 8th Region in 2019.
BEARS 62, BEARCATS 61
SPENCER COUNTY — 19-18-11-14 — 62
WALTON-VERONA — 13-14-16-18 — 61
Scoring
Spencer County (62) — Erhardt 16, Armstong 10, Cox 10, Baird 9, Marksberry 7, Seawright 6, Barron 2, Combs 2
Walton-Verona (61) — Gutman 26, Dixon 13, Montgomery 11, Bach 9, Smith 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Spencer County 6, Walton-Verona 10
Free Throws: Spencer County 8/13, Walton-Verona 11/14
Fouls: Spencer County 10, Walton-Verona 16
Records: Spencer County 24-9, Walton-Verona 23-11