MOREHEAD West Carter's Ben Jordan chatted easily with University of Kentucky pitching coach Jim Belanger in a hallway in the bowels of Johnson Arena on Thursday evening.

Jordan is Lexington-bound after this school year to toss the horsehide for the Wildcats, but the Comets senior will remain a basketball player for at least a few more days thanks in large part to his performance in the 16th Region Tournament quarterfinals.

Jordan dropped in 29 points and 11 rebounds, including four dunks in the final 3:03, and Hadyn Roe notched 25 points and 13 boards as West Carter topped Greenup County, 80-64.

The Comets enjoyed a 43-22 rebounding advantage and a 54-32 edge on points in the paint. Jordan scored 15.1 points more than his season per-game average to lead that effort.

"Whenever he gets to running the floor and playing like that, that's just a huge emotional boost for us," West Carter coach Jeremy Webb said of Jordan. "Whenever he's playing like that, our guys feed off that energy."

The Comets won their first region tournament game since 2012 -- when West Carter's senior class was in seventh grade.

"We've worked really hard to get here," Comets senior guard Dalton Roark said, "and it just means a whole lot."

Roark worked really hard Thursday, too. He scored 10 points and was one of three Comets who shadowed Musketeers stud shooter Gage Hughes. Dalton Brown and Rodney Evans also spent time guarding Hughes.

Hughes scored 45 and 40 points in the teams' first two meetings this season, which they split. He finished with 15 on Thursday, 13 of which he scored in the second half. Hughes averaged 29.0 per game coming in.

"We knew if (Hughes didn't have) a good game that they wouldn't get into any kind of offense," Roark said. "That was our game plan coming out, and it just helped us get in the flow of the game."

The Musketeers led, 15-14, at the end of the first quarter on Jherrell Jackson's bucket down low. But the Comets started the second frame on a 9-0 run, begun by Jordan's and-1 and capped on Evans' putback at the 5:47 mark of the second period. Greenup County was never even again.

Musketeers coach Harold Tackett said West Carter's emphasis on taking Hughes away was no surprise. Greenup County got 28 points from Mike Hubbert, but the Musketeers were at a height disadvantage inside and didn't shoot well enough from the perimeter (4-for-21) to overcome it, Tackett said.

"I think with a matchup like (West Carter's) size, compared to mostly guards, you've gotta knock down the outside shot, and we really struggled from the field tonight," Tackett said. "We're really good when we knock down the outside shot, but we tend to struggle against big teams when we're not knocking down the outside shot."

Greenup County did surge late in the second quarter to within 30-28 on Hubbert's and-1. But West Carter was up seven by halftime as Ethan Adkins converted a putback with 22 seconds to go in the second.

The Comets shot 57.4 percent from the field for the game and 71.4 percent in the fourth quarter. That total was aided by four late Jordan dunks, the first off a pretty alley-oop from Brown.

"It's hard to come back from that," Jordan said. "It's exciting, gets the crowd into it, and it's a big momentum swing, and to get it going back like that several times, it's good for our team and atmosphere."

W. CARTERFGFTREBTP

B. Jordan13-173-71129

Roark5-90-0210

Roe10-155-61325

Adkins3-62-218

Brown2-70-064

Evans2-60-014

Johnson0-10-010

Glancy0-00-000

Skaggs0-00-000

Team8

TOTALS35-6110-154380

FG Pct.: 57.4. FT Pct.: 66.7. 3-pointers: 0-7 (Roark 0-1, Roe 0-1, Brown 0-4, Johnson 0-1). PF: 18. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 9.

GREENUP CO.FGFTREBTP

Jackson4-60-089

Hubbert9-1910-12528

Keeton2-90-015

Hughes5-144-5315

Lanning2-70-025

Walker0-00-000

Nelson1-20-012

Reed0-00-000

Raby0-00-000

Robinson0-00-000

Johnson0-00-000

Thomas0-00-010

Team1

TOTALS23-5714-172264

FG Pct.: 40.4. FT Pct.: 82.4. 3-pointers: 4-21 (Jackson 1-1, Lanning 1-4, Keeton 1-7, Hughes 1-8, Hubbert 0-1). PF: 12. Fouled out: Jackson. Turnovers: 6.

W. CARTER14221925--80 GREENUP CO.15141817--64

Officials: Jason Reineke, Tony Pompilio and Michael Romes.

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16th Region Tournament (with video) Jordan, Comets jam on: West powers past Greenup - The Independent