Knox Central makes it to third Mountain Classic title game in four years with win over Wolfe County

HAZARD, Ky (WYMT) - For the third time in four years, Knox Central will play for a WYMT Food City Mountain Basketball Classic Presented by your local Kentucky Farm Bureau Agents and sponsored by ARH title.

“This tournament, like I said before, is sacred to a lot of people and a lot of our county,” said Knox Central Head Coach Tony Patterson, who played in the first ever WYMT Food City Mountain Basketball Classic. “It is a big deal and anytime you get in a tournament atmosphere it just makes us better.”

The Panthers defeated Wolfe County, the ninth ranked team in the Alice Lloyd College Mountain Top 10, 81-74 in Saturday’s second semifinal game.

“We just came in at halftime and we were mad at ourselves for playing so bad and we just came out and wanted to win cause we wanted a chance to win this,” said Andrew Sizemore who led the team with 17 points.

Knox Central led by as many as 12 points with two minutes remaining, but the Wolves never gave up, using big time threes to cut the game to six with under 20 seconds to play.

The win sets up a rematch of last year’s 13th Region Championship game. Knox Central was able to defeat Harlan County 72-68 at the Corbin Arena.

Sunday’s title game will tip off around 2:30 p.m.

“It is really great to come out here and play with these older guys,” said Freshman Gavin Chadwell. “I need to learn to play physical with these bigger guys so really it just teaches me.

Wolfe County is slated to turn around and play Hazard at 6:30 p.m. tonight for third place in a unique double-header during the High School season.

The Wolves opted out of the post game conference to rest before the second part of their double header. Wolfe County was led by Jaz Johnson who had 24 points. Sawyer Thompson had 19, Andrew Mayabb had 13 and Elijah Tolson had 10.

You can see Knox Central’s postgame below.

Copyright 2021 WYMT. All rights reserved.