LexCath tourney delivers a No. 1 knockout, an instant classic and two scoring milestones

The opening round of Lexington Catholic’s White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic had a little bit of everything.

Kentucky commit Reed Sheppard helped North Laurel to a victory.

Lyon County topped Covington Holy Cross in a matchup that included two of the state’s most prolific scorers, Travis Perry and Jacob Meyer.

Mason County’s Terrell Henry knocked down a buzzer-beater to defeat Bracken County, a fierce district rival who had its top scorer, Blake Reed, make history by topping 3,000 points for his career.

And, oh, by the way, 11th Region contender Madison Central, which came into the tournament with an unassuming 4-4 record, knocked off previously unbeaten No. 1 Warren Central (9-1).

The final three games of the day, North Laurel-Campbell County, Lyon County-Covington Holy Cross and Mason County-Bracken County were all played in front of capacity crowds at LexCath’s 2,000-seat Beuter Gymnasium.

And the Classic is just getting warmed up.

The tournament continues through Friday. Thursday’s 6:30 and 8 p.m. semifinals are sure to include some Sweet 16 contenders.

No. 1 goes down

Warren Central, last year’s Sweet 16 runner-up, assumed the No. 1 spot in the most recent Associated Press poll after cruising through a stacked King of the Bluegrass tournament field in Louisville last week.

Always tough Madison Central had stumbled to a 4-4 record against some stiff competition, and gave little indication it could hand out a whoopin’ like it did Tuesday afternoon against the Dragons.

But the Indians blitzed Warren Central with an 18-4 first quarter from which the Dragons never recovered.

“It was our defense,” said Madison Central Coach Allen Feldhaus Jr. “Our defense was really good because they were focused. And we’ve got some guys who could score and do some things offensively, but we live by our defense and that was the key.”

Jaylen Davis led the way with 22 points, including two first-quarter three-pointers. Hagan Harrison added 16, Robby Todd, 12 and Jayden West 10.

“That’s probably the best we’ve played as a team,” Harrison said. “It’s just us getting used to each other and gelling and finding our chemistry. I think we found that tonight.”

Feldhaus attributed his team’s slow start this season to having four key players come over late from the football team and a difficult schedule that included last year’s state champion George Rogers Clark, Pulaski County, Ballard and Collins.

Harrison, who has played quarterback for Madison Central the last two falls, but had to sit out last basketball season due to transfer rules, is settling into his role as point guard, Feldhaus said.

“It’s taken us a while to make him understand how we want him to lead the team,” Feldhaus said. “We’ve really been preaching to him … we want you to make other people better and he did that tonight.”

Warren Central Coach William Unseld attributed part of the loss to his team’s lack of focus over the Christmas break and having only one hour of practice in that time due to the weather.

“They played harder than us,” Unseld said. “We slept on them. I asked them: ‘How many of y’all had been to bed before midnight?’ And none of them had been to bed before midnight the whole break. It was like we were in slow motion from the get-go.”

The good thing is, this tournament is in December and not March.

“We need that,” Unseld said. “We’re going to do some different things and we’ll see how they respond tomorrow. It will be OK, but we’ve got to respond, though.”

District rivalry delivers a thriller and a milestone

Mason County’s Terrell Henry delivered two spectacular plays in the closing seconds to help the No. 8 Royals (9-0) thwart upset-minded district rival Bracken County in a 65-63 win.

Henry’s scrambling steal at midcourt gave the Royals the ball with 7.4 seconds left. After a timeout, it was Henry who took the final shot, driving to the left elbow for a game-winning 15-footer with two seconds left to play. Bracken couldn’t answer as its inbounds play got cut off as time ran out.

“I go back to my freshman year when I made a mistake and went too early, to today, learning from it and being a senior now, I really wanted to make sure I took my time and we got the last shot,” said Henry, who led the Royals with 27 points. “And I was able to make one go.”

The Royals’ win spoiled an otherwise historic night for Bracken County junior guard Blake Reed, who topped 3,000 points for his career on the first basket of the second half.

“I don’t even know what to say … I don’t even know when I did it,” Reed said. “I think all my milestones scoring, I’ve lost the game. I think it’s bad luck. Maybe I ought to stop doing it.”

Safe to say Reed might feel different later in life. He finished with a game-high 47 points, giving him 3,029 for his career. That puts him in a select group of at least 39 boys’ players to reach that mark, including two active players, Lyon County’s Travis Perry and North Laurel’s Reed Sheppard.

Mason County and Bracken County (9-3) are 39th District rivals, but because they reside in one of the state’s rare “blind draw” districts, they sometimes don’t play each other in the regular season and weren’t scheduled to this year until matched up for this tournament.

Even though Mason County owns a 32-game win streak over Bracken that dates to 1999, both fan bases are passionate about the game as evidenced by the full house in Lexington.

“It was just a high-intensity game. Any time it’s a district game, it’s going to be electrifying,” Henry said. “We know we’ll see them again come February.”

Lyon County’s Perry moves up all-time list

No. 10 Lyon County (10-3) pulled away in the second half to a 95-79 win over Covington Holy Cross (6-3) in a game in which standout junior guard Travis Perry unofficially moved to fourth on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s boys’ basketball all-time career scoring list.

Perry’s 27 points on Tuesday give him 3,573 for his career, pushing him past Earlington’s Harry Todd (3,567 from 1955-56). He needs 15 to overtake Knott County Central’s Camron Justice (3,587 from 2010-15), and 75 to top Flat Gap’s Charlie Osborne (3,647 from 1953-57) to be second only to Wayland’s “King” Kelly Coleman (4,337 from 1953-56).

“People are always asking him about scoring all these points, and this and this and this,” said Lyon County Coach Ryan Perry, Travis’ dad. “I’ve heard him say several times, ‘If you had to go home with my dad, you’d make sure you got one more point than the other team.’”

Perry had plenty of help Tuesday as teammates Brady Shoulders and Jack Reddick scored 31 and 27 points, respectively, to help outgun Covington Holy Cross and the state’s leading scorer so far this season, senior guard Jacob Meyer. Meyer had 49 points in the loss. He’s only 395 points away from 3,000 for his career.

North Laurel dinged up

No. 6 North Laurel (8-4) topped Campbell County 71-56 Tuesday led by Ryan Davidson’s 28 points and Reed Sheppard’s 22.

Davidson played with a brace on his right ankle and walked with a slight limp on occasion, but his attempt at a windmill dunk in the first half and his game-high total attested to his fitness.

North Laurel had lost four of its previous seven games on this holiday swing and has been playing without junior power forward Gavin Chadwell since the third game of the season due to a knee injury. Chadwell is expected to return to the lineup soon.

“We played our last game in Florida without Gavin and Ryan, and I told our coaches, ‘We’re missing like 39 points and 18 rebounds tonight,’” North Laurel Coach Nate Valentine said. “We’ve just got to get healthy, but it’s been great because we’ve been able to play some other guys and they’ve been able to step up.”

Holiday tournament winners’ bracket

Where: Lexington Catholic

Tickets: $10

Streaming: Go.PrepSpin.com (pay per view)

Wednesday’s games

Madison Central vs. Mason County, 3:30 p.m.

Bowling Green vs. Lexington Catholic, 5 p.m.

North Oldham vs. North Laurel, 6:30 p.m.

Ballard vs. Lyon County, 8 p.m.

Thursday’s games

Bowling Green-Lexington Catholic winner vs. Ballard-Lyon County winner, 6:30 p.m.

Madison Central-Mason County winner vs. North Oldham-North Laurel winner, 8 p.m.

Friday’s games

Third-place game, 5:30 p.m.

Championship, 7 p.m.