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By John Henson

Contributing Writer

Two good teams.

Two standout point guards.

Two loud and boisterous cheering sections.

Cawood’s down-to-the-wire 48-47 win Thursday over James A. Cawood at Harlan County High School will likely become one of the most exciting county seventh- and eighth-grade championship games in the tournament’s long history.

James A. Cawood entered the tourney as the top seed with two wins over Cawood during the regular season, but the Comets took control early, building a 13-8 lead after one quarter behind star guard Brady Smith.

The lead was at seven and halftime and six after three quarters and stood at seven, at 38-31, with five minutes left. 

Then James A. Cawood guard Kaden Jones, the Trojans’ star and the son of Harlan County High School coach Kyle Jones, took his game up another level. Jones scored 13 of his game-high 28 points in the final quarter as the Trojans fought back to take the lead at 46-44 with 54 seconds left.

Smith hit two free throws with 45 seconds to play to tie the game, then Masyn Stewart connected on two free throws with 21.7 seconds left to put the Comets up by two. Andrew Vance hit one of two at the line with 11.6 seconds remaining. The Trojans still had two chances to win the game in the closing seconds but were unable to connect.

“At the end of the game, it was basket for basket, and that’s what you expect great players to do,” said Cawood coach Emily Boggs Ford. “They both stepped up when it counted. I think our other guys ended up making the difference because they all played their roles to win the game.”

Smith, as he’s done the last two seasons, led the Comets with 29 points.

“I’ve coached for 15 years, and I think he’s the best middle school player I’ve seen, but more than his skill he has the want to win every time he hits the floor,” said Ford, a star player herself at Cawood High School before graduating in 2008 as the all-time leading scorer. “At the same time, I told the players Brady Smith won’t be the one to win the game. We had to have other players step up, and we had some guys who hit big shots and got some big rebounds, then Masyn (Stewart) hit those big free throws at the end of the game. It was a team win, and I’m so proud of that.”

Jaxon Miller and Tucker Curtis added eight and seven points, respectively, for the Comets.

Thyler Coots added 11 points for the Trojans.

Ford credited her team’s defense for the good start.

“All year we’ve preached defense, and they executed tonight what they needed to do to win the game,” she said. “We’ve played 2-3 all year. We tweaked it a little to help off on Jones, because he’s a great player. They contained him as well as we can. I think our defense and rebounding won it for us.”

It was the first county championship for the Comets since 2015 and the first championship game appearance for any of the current players.

“I told them at the start of the game I didn’t want to play not to lose. We had to play to win,” Ford said. “When they took the lead, I didn’t know how we’d react, but they have wanted this since the start of the season.”