Some games are where legends are made.
Unfortunately for Campbell County’s boys basketball team, they were on the wrong side of a legendary performance in Friday’s UK Healthcare KHSAA Sweet 16 quarterfinal matchup with Harlan County.
The Black Bears rallied from a 16-point second half deficit thanks to the heroic efforts of Trent Noah in a 85-71, overtime victory over the Camels.
Noah finished with 48 points.
“Like I told him in the handshake line, I’ve been coming to the state tournament my whole life. Seen Chris Lofton, Richie Farmer, Allan Houston,” Camels coach Brent Sowder said. “He became a legend tonight. People are going to talk about that.”
Noah’s game-tying 3-pointer with 45 seconds to play helped get the Black Bears to overtime. The Camels had a chance to win it in the closing seconds of regulation, but Broc Sorgenfrei’s 3-point attempt with nine seconds to play didn’t fall.
“We practice those situations in practice all the time. We put 10-12 seconds on the clock and I was happy with the shot,” Sowder said. “Thought our kids executed it well and I trust these guys to make plays. Unfortunately it didn’t go in. “
With the momentum already on Harlan County’s side, Reggie Cottrell hit a 3-pointer to open up the scoring in the overtime and the rest was history for the Black Bears, outscoring the Camels 41-16 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“I can’t even describe it,” Black Bears coach Kyle Jones said. “These guys just kept chipping away, chipping away. Thought they may get a little tight with the momentum swinging our way.”
For 24 minutes, the Camels were in control, they were moving the ball at will and getting balance all over the floor. They knocked down 10 three-pointers in the first three quarters and had 15 assists on 23 made baskets. Garyn Jackson was getting where he wanted on the floor and when he wasn’t hitting his patented tear drop, he was dishing out to others.
“It was just about our ball movement that got our kids open,” Jackson said. “If we’re open, we’ll hit our shots. That’s all it is. If we move the ball and get open shots, we’ll knock them down.”
But they were then caught in between a rock and a hard place on whether to keep attacking in the fourth with a double-digit lead or to try and space out the floor and run some clock. Harlan County extended their pressure, put Noah up on top of their trap and made the Camels turn it over.
Campbell County led 52-36 in the third and 62-54 in the fourth with 3:32 to play.
“I wish we would have stayed in attack mode a little bit, but a part of that was Harlan County being a little bit more aggressive defensively, pushing us out farther,” Sowder said. “We weren’t getting around them as much, but that’s a situation where you always want to stay in attack mode. That’s something, there’s gonna be moments throughout that whole fourth quarter and overtime that I’ll relive in my head for the rest of my life.”
Then Noah happened. The senior South Carolina commit scored the Black Bears final 15 points in regulation, his 3-pointer from about 25-feet tying it up in the final minute.
“It was a crazy atmosphere,” Noah said. “That last defensive possession it felt like the roof came off. That’s just what you dream of when you’re growing up.”
It puts an end to the Camels season with a 27-7 record as they stayed under the radar not only throughout Northern Kentucky, but in their own region.
“It was a team that not a lot of people had ranked and not a lot of people were expecting much from them,” Sowder said. “And we knew what we had in this gym, they knew what they had in each other and I feel like they represented the county well, the community well, and that’s something that they can be proud of throughout the rest of their lives.”
Broc Sorgenfrei led the Camels with 17 points and dished out six assists with five made 3-pointers. Jackson finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Nathan Smith added 12 points.
The loss denied their first semifinal berth since 2019 and they’ll have a lot of people to replace with five seniors on the roster and four of them starters.
BLACK BEARS 85, CAMELS 71 (OT)
CAMPBELL COUNTY — 17-18-20-14-2 — 71
HARLAN COUNTY — 14-14-16-25-16 — 85
Scoring
Campbell (71) — Sorgenfrei 17, Jackson 16, Smith 12, Johnson 9, Weinel 7, Franzen 7, Fancher 3
Harlan (85) — Noah 48, Huff 22, Cottrell 8, Carter 3, Napier 2, Johnson 2
Game Stats
Field Goals: Campbell County 25/58, Harlan County 27/52
3-Pointers: Campbell County 11/32, Harlan County 8/20
Free Throws: Campbell County 10/13, Harlan County 23/27
Rebounds: Campbell County 26, Harlan County 36
Assists: Campbell County 17, Harlan County 10
Turnovers: Campbell County 12, Harlan County 13
Steals: Campbell County 5, Harlan County 5
Blocks: Campbell County 2, Harlan County 2
Fouls: Campbell County 21, Harlan County
Records: Campbell County 27-7, Harlan County 33-4
