Basketball Recap: Austin Slone's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Johnson Central over Lawrence County

Johnson Central was the 86-77 winner over Lawrence County when they last played one another back in January, but their luck changed this time around. The Johnson Central Golden Eagles fell 94-82 to the Lawrence County Bulldogs on Saturday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Thursday (71), the Golden Eagles still had to take the loss.

Austin Slone

Rebounds

01/09/25 @ Floyd Central	18
02/14/25 @ Martin County	13
02/04/25 vs Expression Prep Academy	12
12/13/24 @ Greenup County	12
03/01/25 vs Lawrence County	11
+ 21 more games

Johnson Central lost despite a true team effort on offense. The best among them was Austin Slone, who dropped a double-double with 24 points and 11 boards. Johnson Central is 10-3 when Slone posts eight or more rebounds, but 5-8 otherwise. Mason Mckenzie was another key player, shooting 56% from the field to rack up 23 points.

Johnson Central has been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five matches. That's put a noticeable dent in their 15-11 record this season. That patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 81.2 points over those games. Lawrence County's victory bumped their record up to 20-10.

Johnson Central does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Lawrence County, they will venture away from home to square off against Pikeville at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday. Lawrence County knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past 18 games -- so hopefully Pikeville likes a good challenge.