Spencer County boys basketball made history Tuesday night at the Eighth Region Tournament final.

The Bears earned their first trip to the UK Healthcare/KHSAA Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington for the first time in school history after defeating Simon Kenton, 57-51, at Henry County High School.

“I don’t know if it’s sunk in,” said Bears coach Jason Burns, whose team is scheduled to play No. 1 Great Crossing at 8:30 p.m. March 20. “These kids were all first graders when I first got here, and we talked about this for a long time. It hasn’t even hit yet, but that’s been us all year long. Our kids just battled; we’ve been down oftentimes. That’s what we said (when we were down), ‘We’ve been here before.’”

The magical run to Rupp Arena energized Spencer County (25-9) and its fan base, which remained on the court for more than an hour after the final buzzer.

As Spencer County collected its hardware, senior Camden Cox, who scored a game-high 20 points, yelled out a call-and-response, “Spencer County,” and the fan base gleefully responded, “Spencer County.”

“You saw it,” Cox said, grinning ear to ear. “It's big for us; it’s big for all these people. That’s who it’s for. We win the game, but the community, they built this.”

The Bears showed their resilience in the fourth quarter after the Pioneers outscored them in the third, 17-7.

Spencer County rallied by scoring 22 points in the final period, including a 9-0 run led by senior Luke Erhardt (12 points), senior Keaton Baird (11 points) and junior Jack Armstrong (seven points). Cox made four consecutive free throws to seal the victory.

“It’s March,” Cox said. “So every team is giving you their best. It’s their lives on the line, too. Unfortunately for (Simon Kenton), we’ve been in that position all year. Our foundation is hard work; when we were down, we looked at each other, nobody cracked. Nobody did (anything) besides fight back.”

The Pioneers (18-16) were led by Jay Bilton and Travis Krohman, who each scored 13 points.

SPENCER COUNTY 12 16 7 22 – 57

SIMON KENTON 9 14 17 11 – 51

Spencer County (25-9) – Camden Cox 20, Luke Erhardt 12, Keaton Baird 11, Jack Armstrong 7, Drew Barron 4, Kellen Marksbury 3.

Simon Kenton (18-16) – Jay Bilton 13, Travis Krohman 13, Bode Stone 12, Brayden Polly 5, Miles Brown 5, Jordan Bach 3.

All-tournament team – Santonio Waide (Woodford County), Kellen Dossett (Gallatin County), Jake Fithian (South Oldham), Grant Neal, Jack Fischer (North Oldham), Aaron Gutman, Julian Dixon (Walton-Verona ), Travis Krohman, Jay Bilton, Bode Stone (Simon Kenton), Kellen Marskbury, Jack Armstrong, Luke Erhardt (Spencer County).

MVP – Camden Cox (Spencer County).

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA basketball: Spencer County tops Simon Kenton in 8th Region final