Believe the hype: Lyon County tops North Laurel in a thrilling showdown

A game that couldn’t possibly match the hype somehow did. And two players who couldn’t possibly earn any more praise somehow exceeded the already lofty expectations heaped upon them.

In Lyon County’s 90-83 win over North Laurel on Saturday in front of a packed house at Lexington Catholic’s “Second Chance Shootout” event, each team’s four-star recruits showed out.

Lyon County’s Travis Perry went 17 of 26 from the field, including 10 of 16 from three-point range for 45 points.

North Laurel’s Reed Sheppard knocked down 10 of 20 field goal tries, including 5 of 13 three-pointers, for 32 points to go with 10 rebounds and 13 assists. That’s a triple-double in the loss.

Of course, they weren’t alone. Lyon County shot 58.7 percent from the field as a team and had 20 assists with only five turnovers. North Laurel shot 50 percent from the field and had 21 assists with only seven turnovers.

Indeed, this was a “shootout.”

Perry, a junior guard with more than a dozen college offers including Kentucky, and Sheppard, a senior UK signee, are each a favorite for the state’s Mr. Basketball honor when their time comes.

“Obviously, there was a lot of hype around it. It’s all you see over Twitter. I probably had a hundred mentions on it,” Perry said. “But it was fun. Reed came out, had some big plays. That putback dunk down there was incredible.”

Lyon County rallies in second half

Sheppard’s putback dunk on his own three-point attempt came during a wild sequence in the third quarter.

In it, Lyon erased an 11-point deficit in less than two minutes as Perry hit a pair of three-pointers in the unanswered stretch to go with a bucket by Lyon point guard Jack Reddick and a layup and foul shot by Brady Shoulders.

In all, Perry hit four of his 10 three-pointers in the third period.

“Honestly, I was just letting it out of my fingertips, and it was going in,” said Perry, who unofficially ranks as Kentucky boys’ high school basketball’s second-leading scorer of all-time.

While the crowd was still recovering from Sheppard’s spectacular dunk that put North Laurel up 63-61, Perry pulled up from beyond NBA range seconds later to give Lyon the lead 64-63. It was Lyon’s first lead since the five-minute mark of the first quarter. Lyon trailed by nine points at halftime.

Shoulders added a bucket to extend Lyon’s lead to 66-63 with 24 seconds left in the third, but North Laurel’s Chase Keen nailed a running three-pointer at the buzzer on Sheppard’s inbound pass for a 66-66 tie going into the fourth.

Perry then went on a personal 9-1 run to start the fourth quarter as Lyon County (14-4) began to finally wear down the severely short-handed Jaguars. Lyon outscored North Laurel 24-17 in the fourth for the win.

“Man, it was a lot of fun,” Sheppard said. “Give it to Lyon County, they came out and played a great game. The atmosphere was awesome. I hate that it ended the way it did, but I was proud of my teammates. We were short some dudes and they just came out and played hard and gave it everything they could.”

North Laurel injury woes

More than a month into the season, North Laurel (9-7) has yet to field its full anticipated roster due to nagging injuries, Jags head coach Nate Valentine said.

Forward Gavin Chadwell has not yet been cleared to play after suffering a knee injury in the first week. Saturday, North Laurel’s second-leading scorer, Ryan Davidson, and his younger brother Reece were also out, along with starter Colton Rawlings, who scored 22 points in Friday’s win over Clay County but got his foot stepped on during that game, an injury that ended up being too painful to play through the next day.

That made North Laurel’s effort Saturday against Lyon County, the defending 2nd Region champs, even more remarkable. The Jaguars led by as many as 12 points in the first half and kept themselves in it by making 18 of 35 three-pointers.

Players who’d previously seen little-to-no playing time stepped up their games. Sophomore Kole Jervis hadn’t played at all before Saturday, Valentine said. He scored 13 points, including two three-point baskets. Kyler Elza made the most of his start, as well, with 12 points on four three-pointers. Regular starter Brody Brock made five threes among his 19 points.

“We’ve kind of built (ourselves) on, ‘No excuses. Next man up,” Valentine said. “You keep preaching it every day in practice, but you don’t think you’ll ever get to this point where we’re at. … We’re going to get healthy and stay healthy and start to put this thing together.”

Lyon County makes adjustment

The Lyons normally press and trap for much of the game, but Sheppard’s court vision helped the Jags regularly gut Lyon’s defense in the first half. The Jaguars scored a number of easy buckets on Sheppard’s precise long-range passes.

North Laurel also made 10 of their three-pointers in the first half on the way to a 50-41 lead at the break.

“We had to get out of it (our press),” Lyon County Coach Ryan Perry said. “We knew (North Laurel’s ability to break the press) was coming, and we weren’t able to stop it. … We had to fix our defense. … Luckily, we buckled down and got some stops and Travis kind of put us on his back there and we rode it home.”

Lyon’s Shoulders finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Reddick and Bray Kirk added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

A special game

As two of the state’s top players who make the rounds on the offseason circuit, Sheppard and Perry are friends and shared texts with each other leading up to Saturday’s game.

“I said, ‘Good luck, but don’t be shooting those threes against us,” Sheppard said. “He didn’t listen to me, which sucks, but, no, Travis is a great dude. He’s a great player.”

Perry appreciated the atmosphere and the chance to go up against Sheppard and North Laurel, but he rejected the notion he had any extra motivation for the game.

“He texted me before the game and said ‘good luck’ and said it would be fun, and that’s what it was,” Perry said. “Playing against a player of that caliber and a team like that is fun for all of us. It’s not something you get all the time, so we enjoyed it.”

LexCath downs Male 69-55

In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, host Lexington Catholic outscored Male 19-6 in the fourth quarter on the way to its 69-55 win.

Senior forward Hudson Sparks led the Knights with 24 points, including five three-pointers. Sparks acknowledged the team lacked focus early. LexCath trailed for much of the first half before rallying to take a 33-31 lead by halftime.

“We weren’t really locked in and had to get a pep talk at halftime and then we stepped it up,” Sparks said.

LexCath (14-1) got off to a similarly slow start against rival LCA last time out, falling behind 18-0 and needing a miraculous comeback in the fourth quarter to avoid the upset thanks to nine straight points from Reece Potter, including the go-ahead layup with 24 seconds left.

“It was bad,” Sparks said. “We came out too confident and came out super flat.”

Tyler Doyle added 16 points to go with seven assists for LexCath, which also got double figures from Potter and Rowen Williams, who scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Cole Edelen led Male with 14 points. Demetrius White added 12.

LexCath Coach Brandon Salsman hopes these last two wins help his team learn a lesson.

“We have to play our best every time,” he said. “Tonight was another one of those where guys are just going to come out and try to knock us off and we have to respond. Fortunately for us, we came out in the second half and responded really well.”

Highlights: Kentucky recruit Travis Perry scores 45 points in high-profile high school game

Highlights: Kentucky signee Reed Sheppard records triple-double in front of UK fans