North Oldham punched their ticket Monday night to the 8th Region Championship in front of a massive crowd at Henry County High School, beating Woodford County 49-33 in a game that was much closer than the final score indicates.
Early on this game had the feel that it could get out of hand. Junior Oakland Shearer fired the opening salvos knocking down back-to-back three-pointers to give North Oldham a quick 6-0 lead.
It wasn’t long after that Woodford found themselves staring down the barrel of a 13-point deficit with just a minute to go in the first quarter. A pull up banked in three-pointer from Omari Jointer got the Jackets to within 10 at the end of the quarter.
The second quarter saw Woodford finally find their footing. With the help of some physical play, and Jointer the Jackets popped off an 8-0 run of their own to get within two of North Oldham.
A contested floater on the baseline from 8th grade phenom Pierre Rondo Jr. finally stopped the bleeding for the Mustangs making the score 18-14. A three-point play from junior Thomas Gregg with 0.9 seconds left in the half gave North Oldham a 25-17 lead at the half. The first half for Woodford was dominated offensively by Jointer, the junior tallied 14 of the Jackets 17 points.
The third quarter opened with a nifty turnaround baby hook from senior big man Colin Daniels that stretched the North Oldham lead back out to 10. Jointer then rattled off five straight points to get the Jackets within three. That was as close as the game would get the rest of the way. A pull up mid-range jumper from Gregg at the buzzer gave North Oldham a 31-26 lead going into the final frame.
August Soule’s back-to-back three-pointers to open the fourth quarter stretched the North Oldham lead out to 11 and seemed to be the knockout blows. Woodford County was not able to get back on their feet to beat the 10 count. The rest of the way was a free-throw shooting contest for North Oldham. Rondo hit a pair of free throws to finish off the contest, ending Woodford’s season.
Rondo led the way for North Oldham with 18, while Jointer scored 23 of Woodford’s 33.
North Oldham will move on to face Spencer County Tuesday night in the 8th Region Championship.
