Somerset — Head Coach Don Daniel’s Somerset basketball team has played very, very hard this season. Having inherited a team that lost every starter to graduation has forced the first year coach to reiterate to his team, with each outing, how they must give a tremendous effort to overcome their deficiencies in size and experience.

But up to this point there haven’t been many wins to show for their effort.

“John Wooden, a coach I admire greatly, once said ‘You can’t have activity without achievement’,” said Daniel. “We’ve had great effort, but we’ve been coming up empty most of the time. You can only have so many of those games before it starts wearing on your confidence.”

Friday night the 1-3 Briar Jumpers hosted the 3-2 Rockcastle County Rockets in the back end of a Girls-Boys doubleheader. It promised to be a good match up. Both teams had faced one common opponent, Boyle County, with the exact same result. Each team had beaten Boyle 56-48 at home.

It was an emotional game, with both teams fighting down to the wire and trading momentum. In the end, it was an offensive rebound and put back by Somerset sophomore forward Clayton Stringer that provided the winning margin, 52-50.

“This is really big for our confidence,” said Daniel. “We really needed a win tonight to get some payback for the effort the kids have given. But we knew it would be tough going against a team that had four starters returning from last year’s team.”

Somerset took control first. Aaron Dockery, one of three Jumper scorers in double figures in the game, canned a three-pointer to start the scoring. But before the Briar Jumpers could score again, the bugaboo of early foul trouble struck again. Derek Daniel picked up his second foul with the score 3-3, and Clayton Stringer had to replace him earlier than anticipated. But Stringer responded with a quick basket which broke the tie, and started Somerset on a run that saw them never trail in the first half.

Matt Bullens scored an old-fashioned three for the Rockets to tie the game at 7-7, but quick baskets by Dockery and freshman guard D. J. Townsend gave the Jumpers a lead which they held until late in the third quarter.

The score was 13-11 late in the first when J. P. Henderlight hit a bucket to close out the first quarter, then another to open the second to give the Jumpers a six-point lead. From this point on Somerset was clearly in control in the first half. Townsend’s basket to close the half gave them a 29-19 lead at the break.

Somerset’s defense was the story in the first half, holding Rockcastle to 18 % shooting from the field. While Somerset scattered their points between six scorers, the Rockets had only two players—guard Jamie Todd and center Derrick Thacker—who contributed much on offense. The duo combined for 15 of the team’s 19 first half points.

But there’s a reason why they don’t determine the winner by the halftime score, as Rockcastle County would soon show.

Quick baskets by Spencer Mullins and Thacker quickly cut the lead to six, and seemed to come much easier than the struggles they faced earlier.

“They made some adjustments at halftime,” said Daniel. “Coach Blanton made a really smart decision to start going inside to the big man (Thacker). The shots weren’t falling from outside so they decided to bloody our head some in the post.”

Thacker, easily the tallest and heaviest player on the court, scored eight points in the quarter and dominated the backboards. On several occasions the Rockets almost seemed to be playing volleyball as they followed their missed shots on the offensive boards. The guard play also did a better job handling the Briar Jumper pressure defense and getting open shots for Thacker and Todd. After trailing 35-25, the Rockets offense got on a roll and outscored the Jumpers 18-6 for the rest of the period.

When the third quarter was over the scoreboard revealed that Rockcastle County, after scoring only 19 points in the first half, had scored 24 points in the third quarter alone. But more importantly, when Jamie Todd canned a 3-pointer to end the quarter, the Rockets had fought all the way back into the lead, 43-41.

When reserve guard Dustin Reynolds came in and nailed a three-pointer, the Rockets held their biggest lead at 48-43. It looked like the tide had turned for good. But those Rascally Rabbits would have none of that foolishness.

With the game on the line, the Somerset defense which had turned suddenly porous had once again mustered its strength. Townsend then hit a pair of free throws to make it 48-45. Then Henderlight scored off a nice drive inside and was fouled. The free throw tied the game at 48, and the pace of the game slowed. A Townsend free throw gave the Briar Jumpers a 49-48 lead, only for Matt Bullens to put the Rockets back ahead 50-49. After a Dockery free throw and a defensive stop, Somerset had the ball with less than a minute to play with the score tied at 50.

After running the clock under 15 seconds the Jumpers penetrated and dished to senior Derek Daniel on the wing. Daniel drove the baseline but was forced too far under the basket and his shot bounced off the rim. But Clayton Stringer was there to collect the rebound and stick it back in for the lead with 8.4 seconds remaining.

Somerset somehow still had a foul to give, so they fouled the Rockets and ran three seconds off the clock. When Rockcastle inbounded it again Bryan Clontz made a hurried dash toward the basket, but the Jumper defender closed off the lane to the basket and Clontz’ shot hit the side of the backboard.

There was now an achievement to go with that vigorous Briar Jumper activity.

“I’m happy for our guys and think they showed another great effort,” said Daniel. “This may sound funny coming from the coach, but I really think this team has an ‘all-for-one-and-one-for-all’ mentality.

“But as for this game, I want them to enjoy the victory until they go to bed. Then they have to start thinking about McCreary County.”

Somerset travelled to McCreary County Saturday to take on the 3-1 Raiders of McCreary Central at 1:30 on Day 1 of the 4-day Arby’s / KFC Classic.

The win over Rockcastle bumps Somerset’s record to 2-3, while the Rockets fall to 3-3.



RC 11 8 24 7 = 50

SHS 15 14 12 11 = 52



Rockcastle County (50) – Todd 20, Thacker 15, Bullens 7, Reynolds 3, Mullins 2, Lunsford 2, Clontz 1.

Somerset (52) –Henderlight 12, Townsend 11, Dockery 10, Daniel 7, Stringer 6, Troxtle 4, Flanagan 2.



FG shooting—Rockcastle Co. 18-54, 33.3 %; Somerset 21-62, 33.9 %.

Free Throws – Rockcastle Co. 9-16, 56.3 %; Somerset 7-15, 46.7 %.