In a thrilling contest with eight lead changes in the fourth quarter alone, the McCracken County Mustangs held off Paducah Tilghman to clinch the Second District Title by a score of 65-56. The game was sealed when the Blue Tornado were down three in need of a basket, and Miles Woodfork, who finished with 34 points in the game, stole and scored on the final two possessions, slamming home a dunk as time expired to seal off the win.
“It feels amazing. We put in all the work building up into the season,” Woodfork said following the win. “This was one of our goals and we finally get to check it off.”
“That was a tough battle. It always is in the rivalry game,” McCracken head coach Dustin Roberts said after the win. “We knew it was going to be a close game, and Tilghman played a really good game and made it really tough for us. Our kids all year have shown composure down the stretch, and I thought they showed it again. They made some plays in crunch time to help us get this win.”
The stars of the show undoubtedly were Miles Woodfork for the Mustangs and Avery Thompson for the Blue Tornado. Each of the two made up over half of their team’s points, Woodfork tallying 34 on 15-18 from the field and Thompson scoring 31 on four made threes.
Walking through the final minute, senior Jackson Klope had just knocked down a free throw to give McCracken a two-point advantage, giving Tilghman a chance to tie it up. Klope came up big with a steal off the inbounds pass, but just a singular made free throw for the Mustangs left Tilghman another chance to knot it with 30 seconds remaining.
This is when Woodfork got a steal off another inbounds pass and ran it all the way down to hit a layup, extending the lead to five. After a missed Tilghman shot and a pair of free throws by Jay Martin, Woodfork picked up another steal by plucking his matchup, and ran down for a dunk as time expired to seal the 65-56 win.
“I just locked in, focused on guarding my man, and I happened to just get me one,” Woodfork said about that final steal.
“That was a big play for us right there. That sealed it for us,” Roberts said about the final possessions. “He’s made big plays for us all year. I didn’t expect anything less from him.”
Both squads will still participate in the First Region Tournament next week. The draw for opponents is not until Saturday morning, but Tilghman will be taking on a district winner, and the Mustangs will face a runner-up from one of the other three districts.
McCracken will enter next week’s tournament as one of the hottest in the state, riding high off a 17-game winning streak dating back to January 6th. Coach Roberts and Miles Woodfork have confidence in their team to make a splash, Woodfork with a clear goal for this Mustang squad.
“I feel like we’ll do good. We’ll win the whole thing. We’re the best team in the region,” Woodfork said.
“It’s going to be a war as always,” Roberts stated about the region tournament. “There’s a bunch of good teams that are going to be in this thing. You take it one game at a time, and in the next few days, we got to have good preparation going into it.”
Following the conclusion of the night, the Second District All-Tournament Team was announced, recognizing the impact these players have made in the postseason for their teams. Recipients from the schools are as follows:
McCracken- Miles Woodfork, Jackson Klope, Aaron Adams, Garrett Miller
St. Mary- Griffin Mayes, Jack Griffith, Ja’Cobi Nichols, Andrew Puckett
CCA- Bradon DeJarnatt
Tilghman- Warren Carruthers, Alijah Dabney
MCRACKEN COUNTY15 | 16 | 13 | 21— 65
PADUCAH TILGHMAN15 | 11 | 12 | 18 — 56
MC- M Woodfork 34, J Klope 11, A Adams 9, J Martin 5, O Grogan 4, M Tanner 2
PT- A Thompson 31, S Mosby 7, T Johnson 6, J Purdiman 4, A Dabney 4, M Russell 2, G Johnson 2