The good news is Russellville’s Jacob Naylor and Logan County’s Paige Vanzant have been named second team All-Fourth Region in their gender divisions. The bad news is they were the only players from their schools to be named among the top 15 girls and 15 boys in the 16-school region which stretches from Fairview on the Todd –Christian county line seven counties along the Tennessee border to Sunnybrook on the Clinton-Wayne county line.
Also in the negative column is that Naylor was named second team, not first, even though he leads the region in scoring. He was averaging 25.7 points per game before scoring 34 in a win at Todd Central Friday. He has led the state in 3-pointers made per game and is shooting 76 percent from the free throw line. Probably contributing to his being overlooked is the Panthers’ record, since they have won just eight games.
Fellow Panther senior Elijah Kemp ranks sixth in the Daily News coverage area with 6.2 rebounds per game.
Vanzant has put together a solid season while running the Lady Cougars’ offense. She was named the Bowling Green newspaper’s Player of the Week after scoring over 30 points in one game. She’s shooting almost 80 percent from the free throw line and gets there often.
Some other Lady Cougars have played well all season, too. Sarah Beth Hale has excelled in every aspect of the game. She can play every position and ranks fourth in the area in assists and fifth in scoring.
Center Kennedy Nichols is a force inside and is second in the area in rebounding with 10.4 boards per game. Blayke Bingham is 10th in the region in assists,
Vanzant is the only 1th District girl to be named on any of the all-region teams. Franklin-Simpson and Todd Central joined Logan County in being overlooked.
The Logan County Cougars (20-7) and Russellville Lady Panthers (17-9) were shut out in seasonal honors, despite having won 37 games between them.
Certainly the most improved team in the area, the Lady Panthers have five players who are worthy of consideration—freshman center Anastasia Dowlen, senior guards Deshala LeBlanc and Jayce Buchner, eighth grader Amiyah Collier and sophomore long-range shooter Chloe Whitescarver, but Coach Cameron Jackson’s team has been better as a unit than as individuals.
Dowlen is third in the state in rebounding at almost 14 a game, but shooting is a challenge for her. LeBlanc is leading the team in scoring with a fourth-best average in the area of 14.4 points per game, but a reinjured knee limits her mobility and playing time. She has sat out the last two games and may not play again until next week’s district tournament.
Buchner—like LeBlanc—is a four-year veteran. She’s a tall guard who helps the team in countless ways. Collier has unlimited potential as either a point guard or a shooting guard.
Whitescarver had hit 33 3-pointers going into Monday’s loss to Hopkins County Central. All but three of her 135 shots had been beyond the arc. She, however, has been sidelined with her second concussion.
It would be a mystery why no Cougar was named on a 20-win team if any Cougar had been named all season. That’s not the case. Coach John Tinsley has done a superb job of creating this team, and part of his strategy, obviously, is not to emphasize any individual. He does not report individual statistics on any game. The only numbers being published on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s Scoreboard for Logan County are team offense, defense and shooting percentage. No player is ever named. In fact, the KHSAA site shows that no Cougar has scored a point or gotten a rebound this season.
So even though Tommy Krohn, Anthony Woodard, Kelby Epley and Third Bell are all worthy of consideration, their credentials for honors are not well-known. They certainly don’t possess household names.
And, yet, the Cougars are regional championship contenders as a team.
Two male players from the 13th District joined Naylor in being honored. Todd Central’s John Calvary was second team and Franklin’s Demarco Chatman third team.
Clinton County star Jackson Harlan was named male Player of the Year. He is averaging 24 points per game and has signed to play for WKU. Brad Bonds, who has moved from coaching the Allen County-Scottsville girls to the boys team, was named Coach of the Year.
Top vote getter for the girls was AC-S’ Sarah Sutton, who will play for Murray State. Metcalfe County’s Josh Hurt was girls Coach of the Year.
One of the first-team boys is Isaiah Mason of Bowling Green, son of former Logan County standout Montez Mason.