Prep Basketball: Mercer boys rout Montgomery 85-57

The Mercer County boys used a third-quarter surge to pull away from Montgomery County en route to an 85-57 victory Tuesday night at Harrodsburg.
The Titans led by six points at halftime, then outscored the Indians 21-6 in the third quarter to take a 60-39 lead.
“We just came out and for once put somebody away ... (and) there was no looking back after that,” Mercer assistant coach Steve Quattrocchi said. “We played almost a complete game and showed our potential.”
Clay Cinnamon scored 25 points for Mercer (10-6), which became the first area boys team to reach double digits in wins. Matthew Honchel added 18 points, and Austin Sagraves added 14.
Meanwhile, Montgomery (7-9) struggled when its top two scorers were shut down in the second half. Omar Prewitt and Jake Handshoe had combined for 25 points in the first half, but they were held to four and five, respectively, in the second.
Prewitt led the Indians with 19 points. Mercer made 22 of 32 free throws.
Pulaski County 68, Casey County 62 — At Liberty, Casey (4-13, 2-2 47th District) stuck with Pulaski (14-3, 4-0) throughout the game but couldn’t avoid its second loss of the season to the Maroons.
The Rebels, who lost 71-35 to Pulaski on Dec. 10, were within five points or less after each of the first three quarters Tuesday.
“We didn’t shoot the ball that well, but our effort was really good tonight. We played hard, executed offensively and did a nice job defensively in our man(-to-man),” Casey coach Todd Carman said.
Casey shot 36 percent (16 for 45) from the field, went 4 for 14 from 3-point range, made 26 of 37 free throws and committed 16 turnovers.
Brad Jeffries led Casey with 19 points, followed by James Burton with 17. Burton had a team-high eight rebounds, Jordan Ellison and Luke Carman had six rebounds each and Jeffries, Carman and Tyler Johnson had three assists each.
Taylor Gover scored 21 points and Tyler Goins added 15 for Pulaski.
GirlsCasey County 51, Pulaski County 38 — At Liberty, Casey (11-3, 3-1 47th District) used a balanced scoring attack to defeat Pulaski (10-8, 0-4) for the second time this season.
Nicole Coffman led the Rebels with 16 points, but five other players scored at least five points each for the Rebels, who beat Pulaski 69-53 on Dec. 10.
“We had a little bit better balanced scoring. We had some other people contribute where they were double- and triple-teaming Nicole,” Casey coach Randy Salyers said.
B.J. Hogue had 11 points for Casey, which shot 47 percent (22 for 47) from the field, outrebounded Pulaski 26-24 — with half its rebounds coming on the offensive glass — and committed only nine turnovers.
Coffman had eight rebounds, four steals and three assists, and Hogue had five rebounds.
Pulaski shot 44 percent (16 for 36) and was led by Haley Warren with 11 points.

BOYSMontgomery County    14    33    39    57
Mercer County    19    39    60    85
MONTGOMERY (7-9) — Prewitt 19, Crisp 1, Handshoe 15, Fruth 4, Mullins 8, Asberry 6, Dotson 2, Kelley 2.
MERCER (10-6) — Sagraves 14, Lee 11, Duncan 2, Cinnamon 25, Honchel 18, Pennington 1, Compton 2, McGinnis 2, Buckner 6, Banks 4.

Pulaski County    15    27    44    68
Casey County    10    24    39    62
PULASKI (14-3) — Bales 6, Gover 21, Johnson 4, Goins 15, Elmore 8, Ball 3, Eastham 8, Abner 2, Laign 1.
CASEY (4-13) — Tyler Johnson 5, Brad Jeffries 19, Jordan Ellison 7, Cole Burke 2, James Burton 17, Andrew Clark 2, Clay Cannon 4, Luke Carman 8.

Pulaski County    12    20    30    38
Casey County    16    27    38    51
PULASKI (10-8) — Shelby Phelps 5, Brittany Warren 4, Sarah Howard 4, Haley Warren 11, Allie Tilley 5, Chelsea Burkett 2, Sarah Correll 4, Heather Boatman 3.
CASEY (11-3) — Nicole Coffman 16, B.J. Hogue 11, Katy Laman 5, Jamie Wesley 4, Jasmine Johnson 7, Kayla Wilson 1, Kristin Terry 2, Laken Miller 5.