By Ryan Hoots
February 3rd, 2024
MilkCrate was locally focused at the 3rd Annual Ed Stepp Classic in Versailles, Kentucky hosted by Woodford County High School. This event honors the late Ed Stepp, a Yellow Jacket Athletic Legend. The venue, which is dubbed as “The Hive”, is an older gymnasium that has seen note worthy success in recent years under Head Coach Jaron Brown’s tutelage. I arrived to the event early and saw Coach Brown doing mundane tasks around the gym to ensure the event at hand went off smoothly. A blue collar attitude that he hopes his team carries onto the court tonight as they will face the Adair County Indians in the headliner. The smell of freshly popped kettle corn fills the gymnasium as the crowd was sure to witness top quality entertainment on the center stage of the hardwood.
Before things get tipped in the headliner, we have the Defenders of Lexington’s Bryan Station High School facing the duPont Manual Crimson from Louisville. 859 vs 502 always guarantees to be a fiercely contested game and this proved to be no different. These teams both were looking to play fast early as they traded baskets to start and put the ball in the basket a multitude of different ways screaming to a hault, the score was 16-15 duPont with 1:55 remaining as the Crimson Head Coach Miquel Coleman called for time to get his team some oxygen. This Bryan Station team is deep and is led by a “next man up” mentality. Meaning that if you don’t do your job, someone can come off of the bench and do it just as well if not better. This causes issues for many teams because they can play at a high rate of speed that they can meticulously pick teams apart with fresh lungs. We ended the opening quarter with the Crimson narrowly leading the Defenders 21-19. Bryan Station got scoring started in the 2nd quarter off of a corner triple from Junior, Montae Ashford. Classmate, Felix De Los Santos Gonzalez, a 6’7” forward got involved beyond the arc nailing one from the top of the key to match a similar shot on the other end from duPont’s Justice Decker. Decker, whom is already filled in to his 6’5 body, looks to lead duPont to its 4th consecutive district title out of the 25th in Region 7. We remained locked in a battle as the gym started to fill, going into half with a score of 35-34 with duPont on top. Station Coach Champ Ligon Jr went into halftime looking to settle his team down and get more into the flow of the game on the offensive end. The second half started with a Manual run widening the gap to 8 forcing a Station timeout a bit over 3 minutes into the 3rd. Decker proved to be a difficult matchup for the Defenders. Decker, a 6”5” combo player, currently holds an offer from A.W Hamilton and Eastern Kentucky University. He has shown capability to step outside and penalize defenders for sagging off, getting buckets that opposing teams seem to feel comfortable giving him. The Defenders showed fight, but needed to focus on their namesake and eliminate the shots from three. Weak closeouts were the story of the game for them, as they did put up a respectable 59 points but ultimately fell in a tough one in which they never quit fighting to the Crimson 76-59.
For the main event of the evening we have freshly minted 2,000 point scorer Connor Loy and 6’7” Isaiah Cochran’s Adair County Indians paired against the Woodford County Yellow Jackets. The Yellow Jackets, led by Ball State football commit Layton Starks also carry explosive freshman point guard Omari Jointer, fresh off of a 26 point performance in the “Devils Den” at Henry Clay on Thursday night. The Indians are a serious contender to be the 5th Region representative at the Sweet 16 in March. Woodford is in the middle of a wide open race in the 8th Region, but has as good of a chance as anyone to come out on top with the regional hardware. Cochran has proven to be the missing piece for the kids from Columbia, transferring from Collins last year, he has been a force for teams to handle on both ends of the ball. (Currently holding offers from McNeese, Bryant, Tennessee Tech, and EKU) he will be one of the top prospects in the Commonwealth next season. A surprising number of fans were had found their way through the doors, evenly split for both sides. We were off to the races in the shadows of the Keeneland Race Course. Woodford got scoring started with a deep triple from Santonio Waite, a Woodford County junior, but was answered quickly by Adair’s Cochran with a three of his own. Connor Loy of Adair County looked to score in transition as he drove through the lane for a lightly contested layup giving the Indians a quick 5 points. That layup must’ve got his competitive juices flowing as he was good for a baseline jumper that floated high through the Versailles sky to bring his total to 4 points with 4:41 remaining in the first quarter. Loy plays with a high basketball IQ, moving well off of the ball. That point was proven when he cut to the basket on a give and go from Cochran to give the Indians an 11-6 lead forcing Woodford Head Coach Brown to take a timeout in a plea to his team to settle into their game plan. Woodford came out of that timeout with a missed shot that Adair’s Brayden Coomer made him pay for has he stroked it for 3 on the offensive end. Juante Jenkins, a prolific scorer for Woodford County, got on the board with 1:42 to play as he was nothing but net on a triple of his own. 15-9 Indians with 1:21 remaining. Cochran wasn’t finished as he drained one from just inside center court with seconds remaining to round out the first quarter. The score sat at 18-11 with Adair County holding a narrow 6 point lead. “Confident” Cochran opened up scoring in the 2nd Quarter with a Kobe Bryant style mid range fadeaway that is going to be difficult to defend on any level. HE CAME TO PLAY TONIGHT FOLKS, he just nailed another one as I was writing the last sentence. Adair leads 23-17 with 5:11 remaining in the half. Connor Loy was looking to dish on the offensive end, cooking up a pass to get bruiser Brayton Coomer involved to widen the Adair lead to 10 with 1:34 remaining before both teams headed to the locker room. Woodford County was able to answer with a quick triple on the their end, but the Indians remained composed and answered with 2 of their own. We entered half time with the Indians ahead by 8 as the Woodford County DJ provided our ears with some silky beats for our entertainment.
Halftime Notables:
Connor Loy (Adair)- 6 points
Isaiah Cochran (Adair)- 15 points
Juante Jenkins (Woodford)- 9 points
We began the Second half with the possession arrow favoring the Indians. Connor Loy got his jumper going again as he was good on a left corner three. Heating up, he hit another from the right elbow bringing his game total to 12 points. Loy ripped a rebound down on the defensive end and was fouled hard as he looked to capitalize in transition. Jointer, looking to get involved, cut through the lane aggressively with 5:18 left in the 3rd quarter but was met but Coomer waiting for the charging foul which was promptly called. Jointer, banged up on the play, had to exit the game..leading to a passionate protest from the Woodford faithful directed at the stripes who followed up in giving the Jackets a bench warning. Loy looked to take advantage of Jointer’s exit and attempted a drive of his own where he forced contact but was unable to convert the basket or either freebie on his trip to the line, Adair still holds the lead 40-25 as 2:45 remained before we headed to the deciding quarter. Woodford, committed a bad foul after a made free throw around 80 feet from the basket on Loy to send him to the line where he converted the double bonus to give Adair a commanding 46-29 lead with 1:12 remaining in the 3rd. Woodford’s Phillip Brown was good for 6 points in this quarter and gave Woodford a much needed 3 to close the gap to 12 for the Jackets. However, the Jackets fouled almost immediately on the floor and sent Adair back to the line where they were 100% on the Double Bonus yet again. Woodford’s Brown, looking for anything to get the Jackets going, drew contact on Adair’s Coomer and hit both from the stripe, he now had 8 points in free throws that ended the quarter. The stands started to clear a bit as the Kentucky Wildcats tipped off against the Tennessee Volunteers as 4th quarter of this game started, people wanted to get in front of their TV’s to watch the Cats. Brown was in the zone, as immediately filled the rim for ANOTHER 3 mere seconds into the final quarter to narrow the Adair lead to 9 at 48-39. Cochran got back involved with a nice post spin move on the roped pass from Connor Loy to show that these Indians aren’t going to let a few Yellow Jacket stings ruin their trip down the Bluegrass Parkway. Layton Starks, rocked the rim in transition on the offensive end, but immediately picked up a foul which was capitalized on for a Coomer left handed floater from Adair. The momentum felt heavily in favor of the Indians. Jointer entered back into the game with a slight limp from his earlier contact, replacing the red hot Patrick Brown. Woodford called a timeout with 4:15 remaining to try to set up the improbable 15 point comeback. Starks came out of the timeout with a beautiful opposite hand finish on the right side, I will continue to stand on the hill that he is a D1 basketball player at some level. Juante Jenkins answered back to narrow the Adair lead to 10 with 1:39 left in the game. Woodford was good for another quick bucket but the confident one, Isaiah Cochran nailed a mid range jump shot to answer on the other end. Juante Jenkins stepped up in the moment, deciding it was his time to be the bucket that he is and nailed a clutch 3 pointer to bring Woodford within 7 points and having hope with 70 ticks remaining. After a missed walk call on the Indians, Coomer played through contact to convert all 3 points of an And-1 to bring the Indians lead back to 10 points with a minute remaining in the game. The Jackets fought back hard but ultimately ran out of time in the end. This one belongs to the Adair County Indians 67-55, as they look to carry this momentum into their District Tournament. Solid win for the Tribe.
Notable Game Performances:
Connor Loy (Adair) – 20 points
Brayton Coomer (Adair)- 18 Points
Isaiah Cochran (Adair)- 21 Points
Juante Jenkins (Woodford)- 17 Points
Patrick Brown (Woodford)- 14 Points
Omari Jointer (Woodford)- 3 Points ** Injured in Game
The Coach Ryan Report 