[Batpuff]

This was an impressive win for Lawrence County -- probably their most impressive feat to date.
Beating Letcher Central was good and beating a talented Rose Hill team was good. Beating Paintsville to start the season was impressive -- but they had two more key figures they now don't have when they won that game.
On Friday, Randy Anderson demonstrated why he is one of the top sideline men in the Kentucky preps game -- he takes talent and coaches it UP.
Thompson is easily the best player in the region (and yes, I have seen about every candidate) and here is why:
*Ferocious rebounding. He will not only hit alot of his shots, but he will clean up many of his team's misses.
*Deft passing. He spots holes in zones and works out of double teams.
*An ability to score in adverse conditions and against seemingly all odds. Some guys are shooters (Slone of Paintsville) and some guys are just flat out scorers. Thompson is a flat out scorer. Any area on the floor, any angle on the basket, it is all fair game for him.
*Playing back to the basket or facing. Rice is a good post player, but Thompson can KILL a team with his back to the bucket or draw the defense out and force them to respect his range. He has no definitive move or area that you can take away. The best solution is to deny him the ball, as Music did for a period Friday. But like strong venom, he's gonna eventually get you.

As for complaints about the officiating -- the amazing thing in the 15th is an obvious lack of consistency within each game. One period its hockey and blood, the next it is call every little thing.
Eagle Eye, you obviously were watching last night through some heavily tinte gold shades, because if the game had been called on an objective level, the first three guys who tried to guard Thompson would have been gone by halftime. He was shoved to the floor four times in the first half when he had the ball, then decked another three when he was going for the rebound by blatant shoves to the back.
But is is okay to see things from your team's POV -- that is part of what makes you a hardnosed fan!
Plus, his final foul was about as poor a call on the rebound as I've seen when put in context of a very physical game.
I thought Lawrence County got away with some calls as well, particularly on hand checks and reaches on the perimeter, but by and large there was no home court advantage other than fan support for LC.
And JC had plenty of support, too.
To sum it up, Thompson is a dominating player, LC is in the hunt along with a more talented and deeper JC team as well as Paintsville and Sheldon Clark, and the referees in the 15th make the clowns in the NHL look really, really good.
Peace.

Very nicely put paperboy!!!!!!!!!!!!!