After being tested early by Madisonville, the Christian County Colonels responded in a big way Wednesday night. The Colonels trailed by ten points on two occasions in the first quarter, but came storming back to rout the Maroons 68-45 in the second game of the quarterfinal round of the 2nd Region tournament.
The Maroons opened the game blazing hot from the outside, or rather Cade Cunningham opened the game up on fire. Cunningham scored 10 of the Maroons first 14 points, including two 3-pointers, as the Maroons blitzed the Colonels from the opening tip with a 14-4 run. The Colonels battled back, behind 7 points in the final four minutes of the quarter from Detorrion Ware, to cut the lead to 18-13. Ware had a total of 9 points in the quarter.
The Colonels then hit the Maroons with a run of their own to open the 2nd quarter. Christian County scored the first six points of the quarter to take their first lead of the game at 19-18. The two teams went back and forth until the Colonels closed out the quarter on an 11-4 spurt to take a 34-28 lead at the break. As good as Ware was in the 1st quarter he was better in the second, scoring 12 more to bring him to 21 points at the half.
Christian County opened the 3rd quarter like they were going to run away and hide. The Colonels came out of the locker room and promptly went on a 10-3 run to extend the lead out to 44-31 with 3:10 to go in the quarter. The Maroons battled back with baskets from Cunningham, Kenny White, and Ksuan Casey to cut the lead back to seven t 44-37. The Colonels finished the quarter out on free throws from JaQuon Long and Ware to head into the final quarter up 49-37.
Christian County then put the game away with a 10-0 run to open the 4th quarter, including six points in under 30 seconds. The lead ballooned to 59-37 and the season for the Maroons was over.
Detorrion Ware had another impressive night for Christian County with 32 points. Cory Trice had a strong second half and finished with 17. The Colonels got balanced scoring despite several players being under the weather.
Cade Cunningham was the only Maroon to reach double figures with 16 points.
Kerry Stovall improved to 22-2 in Second Region Tournament games as Colonel coach.
With the win, Christian County improves to 21-7, and will advance on to Saturday’s first semifinal, where they will take on Henderson County. Christian County won the regular season matchup between the two teams 92-84 in double overtime.
Madisonville ends the season at 21-10.