Jim Mashek

WCHS COACH WILLIAM UNSELD: ‘WE HAD OPEN SHOTS, AND WE DIDN’T MAKE THEM …’

LEXINGTON — Warren Central High School’s boys basketball team returned to the KHSAA Sweet 16 with plenty of momentum.

And it didn’t take long for that momentum to disappear.

The Dragons, playing in the Sweet 16 for the fourth time since 2022, had visions of making a deep run, like they did in ’22, when they were the runner-up, or the following season, when they brought home the school’s second state championship.

On Wednesday, in the opening day of the tournament, Louisville’s St. Xavier High School shot 63 percent from the field to eliminate a top-flight Covington Catholic squad, 75-61, and the Tigers waited around Rupp Arena for a while to get a look at their opponent in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Before long, it was clear that opponent wouldn’t be Warren Central.

North Laurel High School, a skilled offensive team, was equally effective on the defensive end of the floor, throwing the Dragons off their game before cruising to a 52-38 victory over Warren Central before a crowd of 11,032 at Rupp Arena.

The Dragons led for most of the first quarter, hitting four of seven shots from 3-point range, but they went stone cold over the next eight minutes and trailed 26-16 at the break. Warren Central cut the deficit to single digits, in the final moments of the third quarter, but North Laurel took control at that point, keeping the Dragons at arm’s length on its way to the quarterfinals.

Warren Central finishes its season with a 26-4 record.

Veteran WCHS coach William Unseld said “hitting shots” would be the key to the Dragons’ chances, before they even left Bowling Green, and that’s where the Jaguars shined on Wednesday.

Liberty University commit Reece Davidson, a 6-foot-6 swingman, hit six of 11 shots — including 3-for-3 from 3-point range — while finishing with a game-high 20 points, along with six rebounds and two steals. All told, the Jaguars found the bottom of the net on eight of their 16 shots from 3-point land, while outrebounding the Dragons, 29-23.

Most of the Warren Central starters were on the bench for the game’s final three or four minutes, the issue long decided. North Laurel will take a 29-7 record into Friday morning’s quarterfinal matchup with St. Xavier (27-7).

“Credit to (North Laurel). They played good defense,” Unseld said. “But we had open shots and we didn’t make them … We got open shots, we got the shots we wanted. We just didn’t make them, and it happens … They made theirs.

“That’s the difference in the basketball game.”

Warren Central’s deep bench wasn’t a factor, as Unseld struggled to find the right quintet to generate the offensive push the Dragons needed to stay on the floor with their opponent. Backup guard K.J. Johnson led the Dragons with 13 points, hitting 3 of 6 shots from 3-point range, but the Jaguars neutralized 6-foot-8 junior center Armani Byrd.

Byrd, the only underclassman in Warren Central’s starting lineup, opened the game with a 3-pointer from the left wing, but he wouldn’t score again. The Dragons may have been pressing, at least on the offensive end of the floor, but they would shoot just 29.2 percent from the field.

Warren Central’s 38 points was the lowest total in Sweet 16 history.

“I’ve been coming off the bench all year,” Johnson said. “I’m used to that … We knew it could be our last (game), and it was.”

North Laurel’s offensive efficiency made it difficult for Byrd to have been much of a factor. Warren Central’s Kaleb Prince, the senior point guard who scored 16 points in his team’s 55-39 victory over South Warren in the KHSAA 4th Region championship game, spent much of the second half on the bench. Prince finished the game with five points and four assists.

“We wanted to make (Warren Central) take tough shots,” North Laurel coach Nate Valentine said. “They made four 3s to start the game … We wanted to keep them out of the paint …

“We wanted to keep the ball pressure on them, make things as tough as we could.”

The Jaguars succeeded on that front.

Prince got the ball to Warren Central’s Jeremiah McCombs, who hit an inside shot to pull the Dragons to within 37-28 in the final minute of the third quarter. But North Laurel’s Reece Davison opened the fourth quarter with a stop-and-pop 3-pointer, and teammate Kaiden Allen followed suit, with an open 3 from the right wing, and that was pretty much that.

“Every time we made a mistake, they punished us,” Warren Central coach William Unseld said. “Their size bothered us. We didn’t rebound like we normally do … Armani’s a young guy. He missed a couple shots and got gun-shy. I’d rather have him go 1-for-20 from the field, as opposed to 1-for-8 …”

Warren Central has now gone 1-and-out in its two KHSAA Sweet 16 appearances since its magical run to the state championship in 2023. Unseld and his coaching staff will go back to work to get the Dragons back here over the next few months.

“We believed in challenging our guys, during the season,” Unseld said. “We compete, every day. Whether it’s (lifting) weights, free throws … you’ve got a price to pay.”