KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Preview: Shelby Valley vs. Elliott Co.

Game 12: Shelby Valley (31-4) vs. Elliott County (31-2) 8:00 p.m.

The final quarterfinal game will feature mountain basketball at its finest as two 31-win teams from the 15th and 16th Regions will square off. This game will be a rematch of the All A Classic semifinals when Shelby Valley handed Elliott County its only in-state loss of the season. In that game, Shelby Valley busted out of the gates to take a 16-3 lead. Elliott won the rest of the game on the scoreboard, but they hole was too deep to recover from. Tonight's game should be a classic.

Shelby Valley reached the quarterfinals by sending defending state champion Mason County home in the first round. The Wildcats are led by junior point guard Elisha Justice, who averages 17.1 points a game. Shelby Valley has tremendous size in their post players which produced some matchup problems against the Lions in their previous meeting.

Elliott County picked up an easy victory over Anderson County in the first round and figure to be very excited about tonight's rematch. The Lions have stated that they are gunning for a state championship and Shelby Valley presents a major hurdle in the way of that goal. The play of Justice and the Elliott County trio of Jonathan Ferguson and the Faulkner brothers (Ethan and Evan) should be some of the best guard play in the tournament.

My Thoughts: Just seeing this matchup on the schedule makes me proud to be an alum of the mountain basketball fraternity. Regardless of the outcome, both teams have had tremendous season and there will be a mountain team in the final four of the Sweet Sixteen. I think the game will come down to tempo and the matchup between Elliott's explosive offense and Shelby Valley's lockdown defense.

Prediction: I think the Lions will come out ready to play tonight and will be a little more prepared than they were in Richmond. I am going to take Elliott County to pull this one out by 8 points.