By AARON SNYDER — The Independent
SANDY HOOK — A maturing Elliott County team was determined not to wear down this time around.
Ashland’s pressure and Lions’ foul trouble coupled to become the recipe for defeat in December, but Elliott County retaliated with a 91-78 victory in February, on Tuesday night at Elliott County High School.
“When we lost to them earlier this year, we knew we could beat them,” said Elliott County junior Jacob Ison.
Elliott County (16-6) was faced again with foul trouble and Tomcat runs stemming from pressure defense, but didn’t fold.
Lions standout Timmy Knipp was whistled for his second foul just three minutes into the game, after hitting two 3-pointers to help the Lions to an 11-2 start.
Elliott County coach Greg Adkins waited only two minutes to re-insert the junior, and he responded with a transition dunk to put his team up 15-8.
While Knipp played through it, Ison was called for his second and third fouls in the second quarter.
Adkins sat both Knipp and Ison for the majority of the final two minutes of the first half, and Ashland took advantage with a 12-3 spurt to end the half and take a one-point lead on a teardrop runner by Will Skaggs with two ticks left.
For Adkins’ group, it was time to regroup and refocus.
“We started to lose our heads on two or three occasions, but we regrouped and I liked what I saw,” Adkins said.
What he saw was his team go on an 11-0 tear, highlighted by a 3-pointer apiece by Craig Faulkner and Cody Nickell. Nickell and Faulkner each finished with 16 points, while Elliott County shot 9-for-17 from 3-point range.
Ashland (15-6) did muster up a comeback, but Elliott County never gave up the lead.
“We wanted to show and prove to everybody that we can beat (Ashland),” Ison said. “I think we played harder than them tonight and it paid off.”
Ison was part of a deadly one-two punch, with the other half comprising of Knipp. The two finished with four fouls, but still managed to play 28 (Ison) and 29 (Knipp) minutes between them.
Ison controlled the paint, scoring 19 points and grabbing 15 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end. Knipp shot over the top of Ashland’s undersized defense and finished with 36 points on 13-of-23 shooting. He also had six blocked shots.
“It’s kind of like pick your poison,” said Ashland coach Buddy Biggs. “We don’t have a matchup for both of them.
“Ison dominated us inside,” Biggs added. “We just had no answer. He just shoved us out of the way and got all kinds of rebounds.”
Knipp hit four 3-pointers, but also worked his way inside the lane, drilling turnaround jump shots and contested looks.
“As long as Knipp’s (at Elliott County), they are just a legitimate, championship-type team,” Biggs said. “He’s just better than everybody else. I didn’t feel we did a poor job on him at all. I just felt sometimes he was shooting over two guys.”
Biggs went with Skaggs on Knipp for most of the game, defensively, and while that worked in the two schools’ previous meeting, it was to no avail Tuesday.
Skaggs put on a nice showing for Ashland, almost accounting for a triple-double. He had a season-high 27 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Delaney supplied 18 points, 12 of which came in a crucial second-quarter run.
Ashland did work its way back to within one point, at 67-66, after Cody Withrow sank a jumper, but Elliott County closed the door with a 24-12 advantage to end the game.
Adkins was impressed with the execution of his team, which had not played since Jan. 25, in a 104-55 win over Morgan County.
“I think this was the best week of practice we’ve had since the season started,” Adkins said.
According to the Lions’ coach, they are improving so much because they are not forcing as much.
“What we’ve been talking about is attacking when we have numbers, but also settling down to get good spacing and try to create some things on the inside when we don’t have something in transition,” Adkins said. “We did that for the most part tonight.”
