Bardstown avoided the All A Classic hangover Tuesday, coming up with a 9-0 fourth-quarter run to put away Bethlehem and clinch the top seed in the 19th District tournament with a 53-45 win.

Peter W. Zubaty

Bardstown’s Marcus Cosby rises to claim a rebound against Bethlehem’s Will Hale while teammate Seivon Schooling (23) looks on.

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The Tigers’ point guard tandem of junior Tavon Johnson and sophomore L.J. Cowherd combined for 27 points, hitting 5-of-9 from the field and 16-for-19 from the charity stripe.

The Tigers (20-6, 6-0 dist.) were coming off a second straight loss in the championship of the Touchstone Energy All A Classic, playing their sixth game in eight days. The Eagles (17-4, 5-2 dist.) won this game last year, taking advantage of a physically and emotionally spent Bardstown bunch. This time around, however, the Tigers were able to hold off the Bethlehem charge.

Bardstown opened the second half with six straight points to claim a 33-24 lead, but Bethlehem slowly rallied back, finally taking a 41-40 lead on a Jordan Cooper-Livers drive with 4:00 left to play.

From there, it was all Bardstown as they pieced together a 9-0 run over the next 2:26, a spurt highlighted by Johnson’s two steals, two buckets and an assist to Seivon Schooling for a three-point play.

Bethlehem, who got a game-high 22 from Cooper-Livers, never cut the deficit below four after that.

Bardstown hosts Nelson County (7-14, 2-5 dist.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the back end of a girls-boys doubleheader, while Bethlehem is also in a girls-boys doubleheader at Thomas Nelson (3-20, 1-5 dist.).