By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The St. Henry boys basketball team will get a chance to defend its All “A” Classic state championship after all.
Organizers of the boys and girls small school state tournaments that were canceled earlier this week due to heavy snow that swept through Kentucky put together a new format on Thursday to save the annual classic that’s been played every year since 1990.
St. Henry gets a chance to defend the All “A” Classic boys state championship it won last year.
The regional champion teams that qualified for the state tournaments will play two rounds of sectional playoff games to create a final four in the boys and girls brackets.
The final four teams will then play semifinal and championship games on Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6 at Eastern Kentucky University’s McBrayer Arena.
Complete brackets for both tournaments are posted on the allaclassic.org website.
Last year, St. Henry defeated Frankfort, 77-70, in the All “A’ Classic boys state championship game. The Crusaders earned a return trip to the state tournament by winning the 9th Region tournament last month.
Now they get to defend their state title.
“I’m happy for the kids that they get to do it,” St. Henry coach Dave Faust said of reviving the tournament. “It just goes right along with the whole year – schedule, reschedule, schedule, reschedule.”
The other local teams among the All “A” Classic state tournament qualifiers are Walton-Verona in the boys bracket and Newport Central Catholic, Bishop Brossart and Walton-Verona in the girls bracket.
NewCath will visit Walton-Verona in a girls sectional playoff game at 7 p.m. Wednesday. St.Henry will visit Walton-Verona in a boys sectional game at 7 p.m. Thursday. Brossart’s girls will play at West Carter next week, but the date and time have not yet been announced.
The winners of next week’s games will advance to sectional finals that need to be played before March 3.
The Kentucky high school basketball season got off to a late start due to the coronavirus pandemic and a high number of games have already been canceled to avoid spreading the disease. Faust was glad organizers of the All “A” Classic made an extra effort to keep the annual small school state tournaments from being canceled as well.
“I told the kids when we restarted back on Dec. 14, every day is a blessing that we get to play and just take it day by day,” Faust said.
Draud surpasses his father’s career scoring total in basketball
Beechwood senior guard Scotty Draud scored 33 points in a game at Gallatin County on Friday to move ahead of his father on the list of all-time leading scorers in 9th Region boys basketball.
Scotty Draud
Draud has now scored 2,868 points in four varsity seasons. His father, Scott, scored 2,865 points during his four-year varsity career at Highlands before graduating in 1986.
The older Draud held the 9th Region career scoring record for 28 years before it was eclipsed by 2014 Dixie Heights graduate Brandon Hatton, who netted 3,045 points in six varsity seasons.
Hatton is the first and only 9th Region boys basketball player who has scored more than 3,000 points in his career, according to records posted on the khsaa.org website. The younger Draud needs 132 points to join Hatton on that exclusive list.
Draud scored 54 points in two games this week to raise his season average to 24.1 going into Saturday’s game at Campbell County. After that, Beechwood will have 10 more games remaining on its regular season schedule.
Ryle graduate surpasses 3,000 assists for Purdue volleyball team
Ryle graduate Haley Bush surpassed the 3,000 mark in career assists for the Purdue University volleyball team last weekend and was named Setter of the Week in the Big Ten Conference.
In a weekend series against Michigan, Bush had 90 assists in a pair of victories for the Boilermakers, who are ranked No. 11 in NCAA Division I after starting the delayed season with a 4-4 record in conference matches.
Bush, a redshirt junior, recorded 311 assists in those first eight matches to give her a three-year career total of 3,039 that ranks 11th in the Purdue record book. She needs 28 more to move into the team’s top 10 list.
