Dragons comeback to beat Mustangs

CRESTWOOD – Dylan Bullock picked the right time to listen to his coaches.

Bullock, a senior point guard for the South Oldham High School Dragons, stripped North Oldham’s Max Steinfeld of the ball near midcourt and drove down to hit a layup with 1:05 left in the game in a play that turned the tide in the Dragons’ favor for good.

“The coaches had been on me all night to get pressure on the ball,” Bullock said. “I noticed he turned his back to me and I made good contact with the ball and just went with it.”

Bullock’s basket, his only one of the game, gave SOHS a 59-57 lead they never relinquished in capping a win that saw them trail by as many as 14 points in the first half. Trailing 35-22 at the start of the third quarter, the Dragons slowly and surely cut into the Mustangs’ lead to trail 47-45 at the close of the period. The Dragons rode the scoring of three guards, Eric Blair, Andrew Pendleton and Shae Goodlett in the final quarter to stay in the game.

SOHS took its first lead of the game since the opening basket with 6:19 left when Pendleton hit a floater in the lane for a 49-47 advantage. The lead seesawed back and forth until Blair came alive and hit consecutive three-pointers to give SOHS a 57-52 lead with 3:24 left. Steinfeld cut the lead with a three and David Levitch tied it at 57 when he came up with a loose ball and hit a layup with 2:49 left setting up Bullock’s defensive heroics.

After Bullock’s steal, Blair hit six straight free throws to seal the win for SOHS. The game had little meaning except for bragging rights as the two teams will meet in the opening round of the district tournament later this month at SOHS as the No. 2 and No. 3 seed. That, however, did not come into play for the Dragons, the defending district champions.

“The coaches made it clear that that was not our mindset at all,” Bullock said. Even though we played bad in the first half, I think we sent a message in the second half that wewanted to go into the district tournament with this win.”

SOHs was led by forward Carson Fields with 24 points while Blair had 12 and Goodlett 12 off the bench. Steinfeld led the Mustangs with 18 points and Levitch had 16.

SOHS – 11 11 23 21 66 – Eric Blair 12, Dylan Bullock 2, Carson Fields 24, Trent Martin 2, Jack Sherry 9, Shae Goodlett 12, Andrew Pendleton 5, 66.

NOHS – 23 12 12 14 61 – Jacob Clark 8, Nathan Yates 5, David Levitch 16, Kam Shams 2, Kyle Kozak 2, Max Steinfeld 18, Devon Rowan 10, 61.