TO LEXINGTON FOR THE SWEET 16.
DRAGONS WILL OPEN TOURNAMENT ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AGAINST NORTH LAUREL
They’ve had a full week to get ready for a return to the KHSAA’s Sweet 16 in Lexington.
They’ve put in the work, they’ve got their feet on the ground and they’re ready to shoot for the stars.
Shooting the ball, as Warren Central coach William Unseld likes to point out, is a big part of making a championship run in the state tournament.
While the Dragons rely on a swarming defense, and a deep bench, they’ll need offensive prowess, too, to navigate the 16-team field at Lexington’s Rupp Arena.
“Honestly, it comes down to who makes shots,” Unseld said on Sunday afternoon, two days before the Dragons left town in pursuit of the third state championship in school history.
Unseld guided a Warren Central team for the ages in 2023, a veteran squad that completed a 36-1 season with a hard-fought, 64-60 victory over George Rogers Clark High School in the state championship game that season.
Warren Central is making its fourth Sweet 16 appearance since 2022, when the Dragons were the state-runner-up, dropping a 61-58 heartbreaker to George Rogers Clark in the championship game.
The Dragons (26-3 overall) will open tournament play against North Laurel High School (28-7) on Wednesday afternoon. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time, after a high-profile matchup between two of the state’s top-ranked teams, Louisville’s St. Xavier High School (26-7) and Covington Catholic (31-2).
A victory over North Laurel would send Warren Central to Friday’s quarterfinals, in the opening game (11 a.m. EDT) against St. X or Covington Catholic.
WILL FACE NORTH LAUREL ON WEDNESDAY.
LOOKS FOR A PATH TO THE BASKET.
26 GAMES AGAINST THREE DEFEATS.
Unseld said he really doesn’t have a preference, opening the tournament on Wednesday or Thursday, but logistically it could work to the Dragons’ benefit. In 2022, they encountered a mountain to climb in having to play three games in roughly 24 hours before George Rogers Clark claimed the state championship.
“That was rough,” Unseld said. “Playing Wednesday (as opposed to Thursday) does give you a day off, if you advance …”
The Dragons punched their ticket to Rupp last week, using a tight defensive performance to eliminate crosstown rival South Warren, 55-38, in the KHSAA 4th Region championship game at WKU’s historic E.A. Diddle Arena. They’ve won 11 of their last 12 games, with the lone loss coming more than a month ago against North Hardin.
“We’ve gone 5-1 against the (Sweet 16) tournament field,” Unseld said. “We lost, early in the year, to St. X in the King of the Bluegrass, and we’ve played Grayson County twice, Taylor County, Danville Christian and Butler …
“You’ve got to get through all the external stuff, the fanfare, of playing at Rupp. We’ll get up there on Tuesday and get locked back in … Playing our kind of schedule should help in the long run.”
The Dragons can count on a senior class that has produced when it mattered most.
IS WARREN CENTRAL’s
LAST LI NE OF DEFENSE.
PROVIDES POINTS OFF THE BENCH.
Senior guard Kaleb Prince, a transfer from Warren East High School, has been a steady playmaker over the last six weeks. Prince leads the Dragons with 11.7 points per game, and he scored 16 points in the 4th Region championship game against South Warren. The 6-foot point guard is effective in the half-court game or the more uptempo pace, and the Dragons have a way of forcing the latter with their variety of pressing defenses.
“We like to make things a little hectic,” Warren Central center Armani Byrd said after the victory over South Warren on March 10.
Byrd, a 6-foot-8 junior, is a versatile defender who is particularly effective in pressing situations. He averages 11 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, and is a shot-blocking demon near the basket. The Dragons can take chances, defensively, with Byrd protecting the basket.
North Laurel has won six straight games, earning its Sweet 16 berth with a 51-38 victory over Bell County last week in Corbin. The Jaguars are led by Reece Davidson, a 6-foot-7 senior guard who is headed to Liberty University. Davidson averages 20 points and nine rebounds per game, and North Laurel has other established scorers in sophomore Corey Cunagin (11.3 ppg), senior Jordan Rawlings, sophomore Kaiden Allen and junior Cooper Ezra.
The Jaguars average 67.3 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field. Which means their greatest strength figures to be matched against Warren Central’s, the Dragons’ relentless defense.
Warren Central has senior starters in guards Dominique Anthony, Ryan Hulbert and Jeremiah McCombs, in addition to Kaleb Prince, with Byrd the lone underclassman in the starting lineup. But the Dragons have an established sixth man in senior guard K.J. Johnson, who was named to the All-4th Region Tournament team, and two other seniors, Bryce Cousin and O’Jare Murrell.
Anthony played his way onto the court, as a sophomore, in a limited role on Warren Central’s Sweet 16 squad in 2024. Trent Noah, now at the University of Kentucky, and Harlan County eliminated the Dragons in first-round play, 67-59.
Warren Central coach William Unseld has been pleased with his team’s attention to detail, in practice, over the last month or so. He said North Laurel “likes to shoot a lot of 3s,” which will put added emphasis on the Dragons’ ability to guard the 3-point line.
OF THEIR LAST 12 GAMES.
TO WCHS TEAMMATE RYAN HULBERT.
IS ONE OF THE DRAGONS’ SEVEN SENIORS.
Unseld believes his squad understands the task at hand, and that unexpected variables may surface in a setting like the KHSAA Sweet 16.
“We’ve had good practices, particularly late in the season, and these last two or three days,” Unseld said. “They’re a motivated team, and they’re playing at Rupp, but in the end, it’s just a basketball game.
“It never gets old, going up there … We’ll see what our young men can do.”
ON THEIR DEFENSE TO GET IT DONE.
