ASHLAND, Ky. – Elimination games always leave players on edge.

The 1970-74 and 1975-79 Ashland Tomcat All-Star teams, knowing the stakes were high in Game 3 of the best-of-3 series, were both determined to set the tone with a fast start.

But referee Foster “Sid” Meade did it for them when he tossed Donnie Allen and Jeff Cooksey two minutes into the game. They were scuffling under the basket after Allen had fought through two hard screens from Johnny Mullins and Dale Lynch.

Nearly knocked off his feet by the double-punch from Mullins and Lynch, Allen fell backwards into Cooksey, who retaliated by pushing him the rest of the way to the floor.

Meade blew his whistle and gave each player an emphatic technical foul and proceeded to give them the ol heave-ho, too.

“We’re not tolerating any of this nonsense tonight,” said Meade, who made the call that 70-74 Tomcat Danny Evans’ toe was on the 3-point line in a last-second buzzer-beater the previous night.

The boos were coming down so hard that coaches Paul Patterson and Steve Gilmore had to settle their fans down.

The score was 4-4 when play was stopped but the 70-74 Tomcats scored seven in a row for an 11-4 advantage. They stretched it to 25-15 when Paul Hixson did a head fake and drove in for a basket.

The 10-point margin turned out to be decisive as the 1970-74 Tomcats defeated the 1975-79 Tomcats, 85-78.

Much like in the first game of the series, the 70-74 Tomcats built a huge lead in the first half. It swelled to 42-22 with 4:19 remaining in the half. They led 48-35 at intermission.

“Our guys were ready,” Gilmore said. “I think Sid made the right call there to settle things down even though we hated losing Jeff. He’s such a fierce rebounder and garbage man.”

David Smith took up the scoring slack with 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting. Series MVP Ronnie Griffith had 21 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in another solid game. Mullins had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Smith, though, was the difference after being fairly quiet in the first two games.

“David isn’t afraid to shoot, that’s for sure,” Gilmore said. “When he got it going though, he became tough to defend.”

While Allen wasn’t much of an offensive threat, the 75-79 Tomcats missed him on defense. Patterson said ejecting Allen for getting banged around like a pinball was not right.

“They were targeting him and he’s the one who gets ejected,” Patterson said. “I know what Sid was trying to do, to defuse a situation before it happened, but Donnie didn’t do anything wrong. If anything he was fouled three times himself.”

It seemed to take the life out of the 75-79 Tomcats although they did get within 72-67 with 7:23 remaining in the third quarter when Dale Dummit hit from 15 feet. However, they never got any closer as Smith scored half of his 16 points the rest of the way.

Jim Harkins scored 20 points with five rebounds, Jeff Kovach collected 18 points and seven rebounds and Jimmy Mann pulled down 14 rebounds.

“When didn’t get enough offensive production from our guards,” Patterson said. “Our defense was better but still bad.”

Mark Swift scored 11 and Mark Collins added 11.

Evans, still stunned from the loss in Game 2, was only 3-for-11 shooting for four points. “I kept looking down at the floor before shooting and it got in my head,” he said. “That shot just kept coming back to me.”

Gilmore said he was looking forward to taking the 70-74 Tomcats to the quarterfinal round.

“I think these guys have a shot to win it all,” he said. “We beat a good team in this series. There aren’t many duos better than Harkins and Kovach.”

1975-79 ASHLAND (78) – Harkins 9-19 2-4 20, Kovach 7-11 4-5 18, M.Swift 3-11 5-6 11, Mann 2-2 0-0 4 4, Collins 5-9 0-0 10, Welch 0-5 1-2 1, G.Swift 1-4 3-6 5, Dummit 3-3 1-2 7, Allen 1-1 0-0 2, Smith 0-4 0-2 0. FG: 31-70. FT: 16-27. 3FG: 0-4 (Harkins 0-2, Collins 0-1, Welch 0-1). Rebounds: 45 (Harkins 4, Kovach 7, M.Swift 4, Mann 14, Collins 8, Welch 1, G.Swift 2, Dummit 2, Allen 1). Assists: 13 (G.Swift 5, Kovach 2, M.Swift 1, Mann 1, Collins 1, Welch 2, Dummit 1). PF: 21. Turnovers: 24.

1970-74 ASHLAND (85) – Farrow 2-8 1-2 5, Evans 2-11 0-0 4, Smith 6-14 4-5 16, Griffith 9-20 3-5 21, Mullins 5-10 2-3 12, Lynch 4-6 0-0 8, Dodd 2-7 3-6 7, Cooksey 2-2 0-0 4, Williams 1-4 0-0 2, Hixson 3-4 0-0 6. FG: 36-86. FT: 13-21. 3FG: 0-3 (Evans 0-1, Smith 0-1, Lynch 0-1). Rebounds: 43 (Evans 4, Smith 4, Griffith 11, Mullins 10, Lynch 5, Dodd 3, Williams 5, Hixson 1). Assists: 21 (Farrow 4, Evans 2, Smith 1, Griffith 5, Mullins 3, Lynch 3, Dodd 4). PF: 19. Turnovers: 17.

1975-79 ASHLAND 15       20       21       22            –           78

1970-74 ASHLAND 25       23       19       18            –           85

 

Embrace what just happened with Ashland’s basketball team because 33-0 is a Halley’s Comet moment. Take a lot of photos. Remember them. Maybe get an autograph.

How did Ashland’s remarkable team make it through to the Sweet Sixteen without a single blemish?

These players are as rare as their record, good boys who make the Ashland community – and their parents – proud. They all must have had “plays well together” on their elementary school report cards because that’s a trait that runs through them. I’ve never seen a better passing team.

They spent many Saturday mornings throughout the season not sleeping until noon but working with children who have disabilities. They are good students, leaders in the school, role models.

They like each other and they like to win more than anything.

Most of them have been doing that together for a long time. Kimberly Phillips, the team photographer, shared a Facebook memory on Tuesday from seven years ago when the Ashland Wildcards were playing together in a tournament.

They have a history together, a background and are well-grounded when it comes to spiritual matters because good people of Ashland have been put in their path. I personally love that spiritual angle about them. It goes back to their parents and the inspirational coaches who had a part in making them great players and even better people.

“They were given an opportunity to play a game they all love and enjoy and were taught that if you put your faith in God … anything can be accomplished,” Phillips wrote in the 2013 post.

How fitting that it popped up on the day these Tomcats made more history and kept making a community button-popping proud. They’ve been the good story in Ashland among a lot of sad ones.

Ashland blistered Lewis County 84-60 in the 16^th Region championship with a clinic of a shooting display that set a record for 3-pointers. They were splashing them in all around Ellis T. Johnson Arena. The score could have been much worse, maybe double that margin, but that’s not how Jason Mays coaches. He’s class too and Ashland is lucky to have him.

It has been a season of incredible performances from these Tomcats who are sure to be remembered forever. They have the potential to be remembered not only in Ashland, which is already secured, but in state lore as well. The last undefeated team in state tournament history was when Brewers went 36-0 in 1948.

The Tomcats are the eighth team to enter the state tournament undefeated since Brewers became only the third team to win it all with an unblemished record.

Fans may well get behind Ashland when they play Elizabethtown in Rupp Arena to try and extend that undefeated streak and, if they shoot like they did in the regional tournament, anything is possible. It would be a mistake to count them out.

We’ve been witness to something special with this team and losing doesn’t seem to be an option, even if a 60-foot heave at the end of the game is needed.

Enjoy the moment because Halley’s Comets only come around about every 70-75 years.

Let’s see, Brewers undefeated championship season was, uh, 72 years ago?

Hmmmmm?

Lewis County will be playing for the 16^th Region championship for the second time in school history against undefeated Ashland.

But, really, it’s the third time and the second one against the Tomcats.

Back in 1953, when Lewis County High School was called Vanceburg High School, they met the mighty No. 1 ranked Ashland Tomcats in the championship game.

It didn’t go well for Vanceburg as the Tomcats proceeded to record a 112-49 victory that is the most points ever scored in a regional championship game and most lopsided win in the final game.

A lot of teams lost to those Tomcats, who went to the State Tournament with a sparkling 28-3 record and designs on bringing the state championship back to Ashland. Paducah had other ideas, slowing the game down and stunning the Tomcats 46-44 in the first round at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington.

Nobody saw that one coming but that’s the beauty of the Sweet Sixteen.

Nobody ever knows for sure.

The Tomcats were led by their demanding coach, George Conley, who made sure he got every ounce of effort out of every player. It was a well-conditioned and extremely talented team. He’d assembled a roster the likes of which Ashland hadn’t seen in a long time. There was talent at every starting position and scoring power off the bench too.

They were even strong at manager – Jim Host filled that role and he was one of the best athletes in the school. Host, a baseball star pitcher for the Tomcats who signed a professional minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox, made his own way in life as one of the top sports communication executives ever in the field.

Host loves his Kentucky home here in Ashland and has often said the 1953 team was the best in Tomcat history – and makes no apologies about it. Others argue the undefeated 1928 state and national champions and the 1961 champions trump ’53 because of how those seasons finished.

Maybe those are arguments for another day and maybe this undefeated Tomcat team gets put in the conversation by the end of next week if they run the table.

Unlikely you say? How likely was 32-0?

This much is true. Ashland’s 1953 team is regarded as one of the most talented in school history with the likes of Earl “Brother” Adkins, who led the All-State voting and considered the Mr. Basketball of his day. He is one of the most decorated players in Tomcat history – playing in the Kentucky-West Virginia, North-South and Kentucky-Indiana all-star games once the season finished – and Adolph Rupp put him on his must-have list. He went to UK but was in Rupp’s doghouse because Brother brought his wife with him. The Baron wanted his players married to basketball.

Brother scored 35 against Vanceburg in that championship game. But there was more, much more. Bob Emrick and Jerry Henderson, Billy Ray “Squirt” Jennings, Lee Marshall, Bill Gray and John Woods were part of a team that didn’t lack for star power.

Ashland’s other losses that season came to Louisville Flaget 59-58 in the finals of the Louisville Invitational Tournament – the preeminent tournament of the day, and surprising home losses to Inez 77-71 and Hindman 57-54.

Back in the 1950s, the Tomcats, Clark County and Olive Hill were the usual suspects when it came to being 16^th Region powerhouses and top contenders. The Tomcats had to dispatch 10^th-ranked Clark County 51-45 in overtime during the opening round of the regional tournament on the Cardinals home floor in Winchester. Then they clobbered Olive Hill 74-47 in the semifinals before dismantling Vanceburg in the championship.

It was no mercy and no running clock as Ashland flexed its considerable muscle, defeating Vanceburg and then cutting down the nets on rival Clark County’s court, which had to be satisfying. The Cardinals were ranked No. 1 the previous season and edged the Tomcats 59-58 in the regional championship game played at the Ashland Armory. So revenge was in mind during that semifinal matchup.

The Vanceburg-Ashland game had another twist. The coach for Vanceburg that season was Bob Wright, who eight years later would guide the Tomcats to the ’61 state championship and a 36-1 season.

Brother Adkins played for Kentucky and Emrick and Henderson went to Florida.

Vanceburg was part of the 16th Region between 1943 and 1959 before being moved to the 10th Region. Vanceburg became Lewis County in 1962 and moved back to the 16th Region in 1972.

So the Lewis County-Ashland matchup for the regional championship has a little more history and a few links to it than some may have realized.

The absolute laser focus of this Ashland Tomcat basketball team amazes me. And I’m not talking about their shooting, which has been pretty darn laser-focused, too.

It’s their attention to detail. Every. Single. Detail. No matter what teams have thrown at them – and the kitchen sink may be coming next – they have found a way to not only win but to capture a community’s attention with every shot attempt, every no-look pass, every dribble and every cameo on ESPN.

Even during a day where hearts were heavy on the high school campus, when things happen that we don’t understand and can’t explain, when there were more tears than cheers, and when things a lot bigger than basketball dominated our attention, they kept their focus. Then they lifted everybody up, putting together one more dazingly display of basketball, and demolishing a team that many believed had the best shot at ending this season of perfection.

Ashland’s 67-39 victory over Rowan County in the 16^th Region tournament semifinals Thursday night was a rousing statement on the basketball floor, but it was so much more than that. It was salve for a school and a community that was going through a nightmare day that wouldn’t end, a day where there were a lot more questions than answers, a day when parents hugged their kids a little tighter when they came home.

These Tomcats are good young men who seem to have priorities in the right place. They have made remarkable gestures that even go beyond what a remarkable time they’ve had on the basketball floor. Ashland’s head coach Jason Mays marvels at his players too but don’t underestimate the man who is pushing all the right buttons on the sidelines and has said all the right things in the locker room, where he gets between their ears. He’s a good man, the right leader for these good young men, and Ashland should know that.

Colin Porter drives against Rowan County.

This is a mentally tough team. They proved it again by keeping focused on the job in front of them, and then recording win 32 for No. 32. That job represented not only each teammate, each coach and each fan but you can include classmates, teachers, an entire school and a small-town community, and a Tomcat family that endured the most horrendous of losses. It’s a family that needs our constant prayers because only God Almighty can bring them comfort. Please pray for them.

The Tomcats will try to keep this one-of-a-kind season going on Tuesday night against Lewis County in the regional championship game and there are no guarantees of what might happen.

Well, maybe one. The Tomcats will be focused. I’ve never seen them lose that, or a game, yet.