GLASGOW—The gameplan went perfectly in the first half for Coach Nick Chaykowsky and Allen County-Scottsville in their 15th District Tournament game against top-seeded Monroe County on Tuesday night.
The Patriots controlled the tempo and imposed a half-court style on a potent Falcon offense to take a 22-19 lead into the locker room, and ACS seemed to be in steady control of the game.
Enter Billy Michael Dyer.
The Falcon senior exploded for 16 of his game-high 31 points in the third quarter, and Monroe County was able to pull away in the second half for a 66-49 victory over Allen County to advance to the 15th District Title Game on Friday night.
“I told the guys in the dressing room after the game that I don’t usually like to single one player out because we want it to be a team effort, but I did bring to Billy’s attention that he carried us,” Monroe County coach Steve Kirkpatrick said. “He took it upon himself to drive it and take the open shot.”
In addition to Dyer’s offensive fireworks, Monroe County also cranked up the pressure on the defensive end in the final 16 minutes to get the win. The Falcons held the Patriots to just 27 points in the second half on 8-of-22 shooting from the field, and Monroe outrebounded ACS 31-26 on the night.
“I tell the kids all the time that it starts with our defense, and defense starts with rebounding,” Kirkpatrick said. “We got to get that rebound to start the offense. I challenged them at halftime to pick up the intensity and play hard, and that’s about all you can ask from these young men: just give it all you got.”
Monroe County (19-9) held a 15-7 advantage early in the second quarter before ACS went on a 10-2 run—Brett Rippy’s driving layup knotting the score up at 17-all with 4:05 to go before halftime.
Owen Stamper then continued his impressive performance off the bench for ACS, converting a three-point play to give the Patriots a 20-17 advantage at the 2:58 mark.
Sam Clarke poured in a basket to push the Patriot lead to five, but Dyer followed his own shot and had a putback just seconds before the buzzer to narrow the ACS lead to 22-19 going into the locker room.
The late bucket seemed to light a fire under Dyer, who proceeded to go off for 16 points in the third quarter.
“I really felt the basket at the end of the second quarter off that missed shot might’ve got his blood flowing a little bit,” Chaykowsky said.
Marcus Carter of ACS tied it up at 34-all on a 3-pointer before Dyer answered with a trifecta of his own to give Monroe County the lead. Dyer followed with a steal and a layup to push the lead to five, and Ty Mink converted a three-point play to extend the lead to eight with 39.8 seconds left in the third. Dyer added one more free throw towards the end of the period to give Monroe a 43-34 advantage heading into the final frame.
Allen County-Scottsville (9-19) kept Dyer in check in the first few minutes of the fourth, but the Falcons went inside to Chandler Clements—who scored the first eight points of the quarter for Monroe.
“We tried to get it inside (to Clements),” Kirkpatrick said. “He can step outside and shoot the ball well, but his strength is inside in the paint.”
ACS made one last push when the Patriots got it back down to single digits after Carter hit two free throws to make it 51-42 with 3:49 remaining, but Dyer answered with a three-point play just 12 seconds later to push the advantage back to double digits and finally put away the stubborn Patriots.
“Give Allen County a lot of credit,” Kirkpatrick said. “That first half they came at us, especially in the second quarter. We weren’t making shots and they were making shots. We knew it was going to be a battle. We just ended up making shots and we made defensive plays down the stretch.”
Clarke led ACS in the loss with 14 points while Stamper tallied nine off the bench. Rippy was held to just five points.
Clements complemented Dyer’s 31-point performance with a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds while Ty Mink added seven points.
Monroe County will now face either Glasgow or Barren County for the 15th District title on Friday night at 6 p.m, looking to repeat as champions.
“We won it last year as juniors,” Mink said. “Going into it we have to have hard and focused practices (Wednesday) and Thursday to be champions again this year. We really just need to play our best ball as a team, and we’ll come out successful in the end.”
