Kentucky Sweet 16: Friday Afternoon Standouts

Friday at the Kentucky Sweet 16 saw the four quarterfinal match-ups take place and in this article we'll break down the standouts from the afternoon session that saw Bowling Green and South Oldham clinch semifinal berths.    The senior experience of the Purples was the difference as their core has played a ton of basketball together and been in tight moments and in crunch time they made the plays necessary to win the game. Carpenter was active all game, finding himself around the basketball and in positions to score either in transition or as a driver. Liked the intangibles he brought to the table and Carpenter let the game come to him as he shot 7/9 from the field in the victory.     I was really impressed with Idlett as a shooter when I watched him as a Junior as he could make shots from NBA range! I wanted to see Idlett expand his game and impact winning basketball in more ways. He answered that call as Idlett has really improved defensively as he had three steals on Friday including some big ones in the closing stretches. Idlett was also confident on the ball and shot 9/11 from the foul line and drew seven fouls. Idlett had the second best +- of any player in the game with a +7, showing off his value to his team.     One of the top players in Kentucky and in recent 16th region history, Carter ends an incredible high school career with another stellar performance. Carter had some huge possessions that included five and four point trips in the second half thanks to and-1 shots. I always leave impressed with Carter's ability to play through contact and draw fouls, he drew 10 on Friday. As a passer, Carter set his teammates up for open 3-point shots and his teammates shot 8/20 from 3-point range. Congrats to Carter on a great career and he has all the intangibles to be a winning player at the college level for Liberty.     I'm not sure how many more impressive heaters I've seen in a state tournament game than what Wuchterl did on Friday afternoon. Knocking down 10/13 from long distance, the rim looked as wide as the ocean for Wuchterl. I thought [player_tooltip player_id='1513540' first='Julian' last='Miles'] did an excellent job of swinging the rock and using his gravity to set his teammates up, he finished with a game-high 12 assists. The highlight of the game came when Wuchterl saved a ball from going out of bounds and got back inbounds to launch a corner 3-pointer from almost behind the backboard that went in nothing but net, the perfect play to capture the magical performance he had. Defensively, Wuchterl was also valuable at the top of South Oldham's 1-3-1 pressure as his length caused a few turnovers.     One of the top football athletes in the class of 2027 in Kentucky, Westmoreland already has a couple of FBS offers. Watching Westmoreland that comes as no surprise as physically he is built strong and pops vertically as an athlete. On the hardwood, Westmoreland kept it simple by finishing 6/7 from the floor as a rim finisher and rebounder, finishing with 14 points and 8 rebounds. End of a great run by Jeffersontown who were sparked by the return of Camron McDaniels and upset Louisville St Xavier in the opening round of the Sweet 16 tournament.

Friday at the Kentucky Sweet 16 saw the four quarterfinal match-ups take place and in this article we'll break down the standouts from the afternoon session that saw Bowling Green and South Oldham clinch semifinal berths.