Kentucky All A: Thursday Morning Standouts

The Kentucky All A State tournament got underway on Thursday and in this article I'll break down some standout performers from the morning session of the round of 16.    The strongest athlete and best defender on the court, Beaty showed his physical dominance to help Clinton County cruise to an opening round victory here in Owensboro. Beaty is a quick athlete in transition and had a couple easy coast to coast finishes in transition. After missing his first few 3-point attempts, Beaty knocked down a transition 3-pointer on the wing to help get momentum back with Clinton County after Evangel Christian made their biggest push of the game. Clinton County also handled the zone trapping defense of Evangel Christian well and Beaty was the recipient of a couple easy layups from crisp passes by his teammates. In the fourth quarter, Beaty had a breakaway slam dunk to extend a lead and put the icing on the cake for Clinton County.     One of the top unsigned seniors in Kentucky, Craine had a dominant performance to lead Caverna to a comfortable victory in the opening round against Owensboro Catholic. Craine started the game with a time and space 3-pointer, a pickpocket steal and score then a leakout lefty and-1 layup. That started an 11-0 run to start the game and Owensboro Catholic never seriously threatened to take the lead all night. Craine is an impressive passer who uses the bounce pass to his benefit. Maybe the highlight of the game was Craine jumping to save a ball from going out of bounds in transition, setting up the offense and delivering a skip pass to the corner for an open 3-pointer. High level performance by the senior floor general.     I've been high on Graves for a while and it's a pretty simple evaluation for myself. Graves blocks shots, plays above the rim with dunks and can space the floor. You do those three things as a forward and you will impact winning. On Thursday, Graves had a handful of blocks, a couple of two-hand jams and knocked down one 3-pointer and one mid-range fallaway. That skillset should be valuable for JUCO, Division II and NAIA programs.     After only scoring 13 points in the first half, Walton-Verona used a balanced scoring attack to make a second half comeback to advance in the tournament. Shearer was getting to his spots in the mid-range and rising up for contested pull-up jumpers. Despite being a lefty, Shearer was more comfortable finishing with his right hand at the rim. Icing the game from the foul line, Shearer made sure his team would come out with a victory.     Absher and sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='3430370' first='Brock' last='Stevens'] seemed like they scored almost every bucket for Somerset on Thursday. Absher started the game working mostly off the ball, making some nice cuts to make himself available in the paint. In the second half, Absher was using more of a dribble-drive game to get to the rim and score. In the fourth quarter, Absher tied the game three separate times as his team kept falling behind by just a bucket. Impressed with Absher's ability to create for himself and set teammates up, he had a handful of potential assists as well.     Simply too big and strong for the opposition on Thursday, a majority of Keathley's buckets against Breathitt County were either right-handed layups or breakaway dunks. Martin County does a nice job hitting Keathley in transition where he's usually faster and stronger than the defenders chasing him from behind. Add in a open set 3-pointer on the wing in the final minute of the first half to extend Martin County's lead to double-digits at the break and Keathley had a major impact for the Cardinals. In the third quarter, Keathley continued to pour it on with a deep pull-up to extend the lead to 63-40. Martin County continued to pour it on, leading by 20+ the rest of the way.

The Kentucky All A State tournament got underway on Thursday and in this article I'll break down some standout performers from the morning session of the round of 16.