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By John Henson

Contributing Sports Writer

Locked in a 29-29 tie midway through the third quarter, Harlan County found itself in trouble for the second straight night against a 13th Region rival in the Tim Short Auto Mall Classic at Corbin.

Senior guard Trent Noah, who has signed with South Carolina and is a two-time all-stater, took over at that point, just as he’s done many times on his way to over 3,000 points in his career. Four straight trips down the court in a 60-second span resulted in four straight Noah 3-pointers. A tie game was now a 12-point lead for the Bears, and North Laurel was never able to recover. HCHS went on to a 65-58 victory over the two-time defending 13th Region champions.

“That’s why he’s going to play in the SEC next year,” said North Laurel coach Nate Valentine. “He’s a good player, and that’s what he does. He makes plays. He can score in bunches. There is no margin for error when you play Harlan County.”

“That might surprise some people, but it doesn’t surprise me,: Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “You know at any point in time he can get hot and take over a game.”

Noah finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds as the Bears improved to 15-2 on the season. Maddox Huff bounced back from a rare off night against Corbin a night earlier as he finished with 16 points.

Brody Brock led a balanced North Laurel attack with 15 points. Reece Davidson, Joe Smith and Kole Jervis added 12 points each.

A key stat for North was a five-for-28 shooting night from beyond the 3-point line. Brock and Davidson, both key players in last year’s regional tournament title run, missed all 13 attempts combined.

“To beat Harlan County, you’ve got to make some shots,” Valentine said. “Anybody that’s going to beat them, if anyone can, will have to make a lot of shots. We went through a dry spell of about six minutes. Credit to them though. They are very good defensively.”

North made its first three shots in building an 8-0 lead, but then missed 10 of its next 11 as Harlan County slowly cut the deficit to 10-7 by the end of the first quarter.

Huff and Noah combined to score the first 12 points of the second quarter as the Bears built a 19-10, but they were unable to build on the momentum as North battled back to a 24-24 tie by halftime as Davidson and Brock each had two baskets in the period.

Noah owned the third quarter with 18 points on seven-of-nine shooting as HCHS built a 48-39 going into the final period. Huff and Caleb Johnson also hit 3s for the Bears.

The Harlan County lead grew to 59-42 with just over four minutes left on baskets by Jaycee Carter, Reggie Cottrell, Johnson and Brody Napier. The Bears struggled from that point with seven turnovers in the fourth quarter after only four in the first three periods.

“We got up 17 in the fourth and made some careless passes. We know you can’t do that come tournament time,” Jones said. “North Laurel came to play today and had a lot more energy than we did.”

Jones said close calls the last two nights against Corbin and North Laurel are a learning opportunity for the Bears, who have been the top-ranked team in the region since the preseason.

“We know that as coaches, but sometimes kids have to be grounded a little bit,” Jones said. “We know North and Corbin are good teams. There are several good teams in our region. We need to get our legs back. I thought we looked dead-legged tonight. That’s probably because of traveling and playing as much as we have the past three weeks. We’ll go back to the drawing board. I think everyone knows we can play better than we have the last two games.”

Harlan County opens its district schedule Tuesday at Bell County in a girls/boys doubleheader. North Laurel (5-10) plays host to Madison Central on Tuesday.

Noah reaches 3K as Black Bears hang on in showdown at Corbin

When a 15-point halftime lead disintegrated into a two-point deficit with two minutes left in a matchup of the 13th Region’s top two preseason teams, the Harlan County Black Bears turned the game over to all-state senior guard Trent Noah.

Noah’s three-point play put the Bears back on top and helped him reach the 3,000-point plateau with 1:47 to play. Corbin’s Zander Curry pulled the Hounds even when he hit one of two free throws after a controversial foul call on Reggie Cottrell on his block. Noah gave HCHS the lead for good with a basket at the 1:24 mark, then slammed home two more points after Eli Pietrowski’s 3-pointer was off the mark. Pietrowski cut the lead in half with two free throws before Noah answered with 24 seconds left, then found Caleb Johnson open for a layup after another Corbin miss to finish off a 59-53 victory on Friday in the Tim Short Auto Mall Classic.

“We just felt that if we kept going to Trent he would either score or get fouled,” said Harlan County coach Kyle Jones, who drew a technical after one of numerous disagreements with officials during the hard-fought game. “Trent gets bumped a lot and sometimes, where he’s bigger, it doesn’t always get seen. He worked through it and finished the game out.”

Noah scored 31 points to lead the 14-2 Bears, joining former Mr. Basketball Charles Thomas, of Harlan, as the only two players in county history to score 3,000 points. Senior forward Caleb Johnson added 13 points.

Curry led the 6-4 Redhounds with 14 points. Pietrowski added 12.

Noah was held to no points and only one shot attempt in the first quarter, but Johnson filled the void with a pair of early 3s as the Bears took an 8-0 lead in the opening four minutes as the Hounds missed their first six shots. Curry broke the drought at the 3:02 mark, but Corbin hit only two of 10 shots and trailed 12-5 after one quarter.

Noah quickly made up for his slow start on offense with a three-point play and 3-pointer in the the opening minute of the second quarter. Another three-point play by Noah pushed the Bears’ lead to 24-10 midway through the period.

“We started out playing real physical. We talked about that because we felt they beat us up physically last year in the regional tournament,” Jones said,. “They are a good basketball team and well coached, and everyone knows that.”

After being held without a basket by Noah in the first half, Pietrowski started the Corbin comeback in the third quarter with two straight baskets. Curry hit three of four shots in the period as Corbin cut the deficit to 43-36 by the end of the quarter.

Pietrowski had two baskets in an 8-0 run as HCHS was held scoreless for almost three minutes before Noah took control down the stretch.

“We didn’t feel we played very well the second half. We didn’t come out ready to play. We were just able to hang around and win. We have to move on to the next one,” Jones said. “I think we showed some poise in the second half. Playing in all these tournaments has helped. We just have to keep improving.”