The Kentucky AAU 15 and Under Tournament was played from June 10th through June 13. The games were played at Frankfort High School and Franklin County High School, with the semifinals and finals at Franklin County High School. There were several strong teams entered in the 32 team field: Northern Kentucky Wildcats, Northern Kentucky Tarheels, Scott County, Boyle County, Lexington Catholic, Henderson County, etc.

There were some tremendous individual performances in some of the early round games. Marc Bain, a 5-9 guard for the Northern Kentucky Wildcats connected on 9 3-pointers in one of the early games. Brandon Stockton, a 5-9 point guard for Glasgow, poured in 46 points in a 78-57 win over Greenwood. C-3 Brown, a 5-9 guard for Scott County, followed Stockton's performance with 41 points in a 91-70 win over Shelby Valley.
 

Quarterfinals

Boyle County defeated Frankfort 62-51 in one quarterfinal matchup.. 5-10 Casey McCoy led a balanced Boyle County attack with 13 points. 6-0 Zac Recerd added 11 points and 5-9 Rob Vonckx tallied 10. Ben Hall led Frankfort with 13 points.

The Northern Kentucky Wildcats defeated Lexington Catholic 74-57 in another quarterfinal game. 6-4 Jeff Eisenmenger led a balanced Wildcat attack with 14 points. 6-2 Jon Blazjewski added 13 points, 5-9 Marc Bain and 6-0 Jared Smock added 11 points each, and 6-4 Matt Finke tallied 10 points. This was enough to overcome a stellar 24 point effort by 6-3 Ryan Morton of Lexington Catholic.

Scott County outlasted Henderson County 98-97 in another quarterfinal thriller and the Northern Kentucky Tarheels defeated Glasgow to advance to the semifinal round.
 

Semifinals

Northern Kentucky Tarheels  69
Scott County  65

The Northern Kentucky Tarheels finally subdued Scott County 69-65 in an exciting semifinal game. 5-11 Mike Hopkins, a strong inside player, proved too tough for Scott County and led the Tarheels with 31 points. 5-10 outside sharpshooter Greg Hiltz added 12 points and 6-3 Kevin Reinhardt tallied 11 points. Scott County was led by 6-2 Coy Zerhusen with 19 points. C-3 Brown fouled out with 7:40 to go in the fourth quarter after scoring 14 points.
 

Northern Kentucky Wildcats  70
Boyle County  37

The Northern Kentucky Wildcats ran away with a 70-37 win over Boyle County in the other semifinal.  Matt Finke tallied 17 points and the three point specialist Marc Bain added 16. The Wildcats are talented and deep with several players capable of scoring in double figures.
 

Third Place Game

By consent of the Scott County and Boyle County coaches, there was no Third Place game.
 

Championship Game

Northern Kentucky Tarheels  51
Northern Kentucky Wildcats  48

The Championship game pitted the Northern Kentucky Tarheels against the Northern Kentucky Wildcats. The Tarheels prevailed in a close game by a score of 51-48. Greg Hiltz led the victors with 21 points and 5-8 Robert Burkhart came off the bench to add 11 points. Jeff Eisenmenger led a very balanced attack with 10 points. 6-3 Brian Lewin, 5-9 Pete Voelker, and Marc Bain added 8 points each. The score was tied at 48 until Hiltz scored a field goal and free throw to close out the scoring.
 

Conclusion

This was an exciting tournament with several big-time performances. The stats given above are not official, but were kept by me personally. Unfortunately I could only attend the last two days, but I saw several players I liked. Ryan Morton had a very solid tournament for Lexington Catholic and is playing with more confidence this year. Mike Hopkins is only 5-11 but at this level was hard to stop inside the paint for the Tarheels. The Wildcats had three inside players 6-3 to 6-4 in Eisenmenger, Lewin, and Finke, who played well. Henderson County's inside duo of Jarrett and Foreman was also impressive.

The guards really put on a show in this tourney. The aforementioned C-3 Brown, Brandon Stockton, Greg Hiltz, and Marc Bain had excellent tournaments. Several players in this tournament are either starting for their varsity squads or should be contending for starting positions this winter.