“Can’t hold him!” the female Beechwood fan screamed with 1.5 seconds left in the Tigers’ Dec. 23 game against Walton-Verona.
The Bearcats didn’t – Ryan Smith’s layup at the buzzer secured a 64-63 win – and neither did nine other Beechwood opponents. Harlan County, however, handed the Tigers their first loss, 62-61, in Sunday’s finals of the Taylor County Farm Bureau Holiday Classic in Campbellsville.
“Ten-and-0 is great, especially when you know you haven’t played your best basketball yet,” Beechwood coach Ross Hart said. “So it’s always good when you’re winning and learning.”
Beechwood’s 10-0 start is nevertheless the best in the school’s 94-year history. “Gritty” is the word Hart chose to describe his team’s start.
“They’ve found ways to win,” Hart said. “They dig deep.”
Sophomore Dylan Topmiller’s 21.0 points a game leads the team. He says Beechwood’s success has been “unexpected.”
“You know, just because we also lost a lot of seniors, a lot of great talent,” Topmiller said. “And, we’re really, unexperienced this year.”
Hart wanted to give Topmiller more varsity minutes as a freshman last year; he couldn’t because Topmiller broke a thumb and played in just nine games, scoring 11 points.
“Yeah, it definitely means more to me, just getting a lot of experience at this varsity level and keep doing what I’m doing,” Topmiller said of this season.
A strong schedule
Through 11 games, Beechwood averaged 67.5 points and allowed 47.4. Senior Owen McCormack averages 13.3 points, including 27 in Saturday’s 73-46 Taylor County semifinal win over Bardstown, and junior Kingston Brockett averages nearly 7.0 rebounds.
The Tigers did not breeze through the first 10 games – they overcame an 11-point deficit against Bishop Brossart (65-59 on Dec. 11), were 13 down to Pendleton County (61-54 on Dec. 16), trailed Pleasure Ridge Park (59-54 on Friday) by 12 and fell behind Walton-Verona.
After mercy-rule wins over Gallatin County and Scott, Topmiller and senior Quentin Knasel each scored 15 against Brossart. Against Pendleton County, Topmiller and McCormack scored 19 and 13, respectively, and Smith added 10.
The Tigers needed every one of Topmiller’s career-high 30 points in a 72-70 double-overtime win over Conner on Dec. 18 – he was 11-of-19 from the field (with 5-of-9 from 3) and 3-of-3 from the free throw line. Beechwood followed with wins over Lee County (83-39) and Mercer County (52-28) at the Berea Holiday Classic.
‘Great design, great play’
Like most small high schools, Beechwood takes players from the football and baseball teams. The Tigers needed one of each in the final seconds against Walton-Verona, especially since the Bearcats took a 63-62 lead on Wyatt Shearer’s offensive rebound and put-back with 0.9 seconds left.
Bearcats coach Mike Hester thought there was less than a second to go – until there wasn’t.
“The officials got together, they put a second back on the clock,” Hester said.
With 1.9 seconds left, Beechwood’s Branton Stiles, a pitcher on the baseball team, fired a pass to half-court, and the Tigers called timeout with 1.5 seconds remaining.
The winning play: have Cole Coppage, the Tigers’ backup quarterback, take the ball out, send Brockett to the right corner and McCormack to the left wing, and have Topmiller set a back screen on Walton-Verona’s Adam Gutman, who’d been guarding Smith at the top of the key.
The result: Smith was all alone for the layup.
“(Coppage) threw one of the best high school passes I’ve ever seen, right at the rim,” Hester said Sunday. “ I mean, great design, great play, beautifully executed … I had no idea he was a football player.”
Sunday, Beechwood fell behind by double digits, and again the Tigers came back – Topmiller’s free throw with 14 seconds left tied the score at 61-all. The last comeback was the Black Bears’ – a free throw with two ticks left sealed the win.
“As much as it’s been nice to overcome these double-digit comebacks, when you’re playing a team as good as Harlan County, who won a (13th Region) championship two years ago … when you’re playing a quality opponent like that, it’s hard to overcome double digits time after time again,” Hart said.
Topmiller averaged 20 points in three games at Taylor County, and McCormack was next at 19.3.
Beechwood opens 2026 Friday against Woodward Career Technical out of Ohio. McCormack’s word consists of nine letters and three syllables.
“Potential,” he said. “We started off the season strong, and I think if we continue playing this well, I think we can shock some teams and make a run in the (Ninth) region. And I think we can make it to the region.”