LEXINGTON — The Lyon County Lyons suffered a tough 73-53 loss to the Lexington Catholic Knights in the semi-final round of the White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic on Thursday, Dec. 29. Despite a strong start by the Lyons, Lexington Catholic pulled ahead 15-10 late in the first quarter. Two late baskets from Travis Perry and Jack Reddick cut the gap 17-14 going into the second frame.
A 3-pointer from Reddick, 52 seconds into the second quarter, gave Lyon its first lead of the night 18-17. Rowan Williams answered back for the Knights to make it 19-18 almost immediately. With 6:20 left in the first half, Perry drained his third 3-pointer of the night to give Lyon County the 21-19 advantage, but a 14-0 run from Lexington Catholic ensured the Lyons would never lead again.
The Lyons came as close as 40-32 early in the third quarter after an opening three from Brady Shoulders, followed by a stolen possession by Bray Kirk which was passed off to Reddick for a basket, then capped off by another three from Reddick. The momentum seemed to dissipate after the next bucket from Perry was nixed on a charge call in favor of Miller Williams.
The Knights led by as much as 19 in the third quarter until back-to-back buckets from Perry and Isaac DeFew cut the deficit to 56-41.
Unfortunately for Lyon County, the final eight minutes just weren’t enough to make up for an extremely productive third quarter from Lexington Catholic.
Perry led the Lyon County offense with 25 points and three assists. Perry entered the game with 3,613 career points, which was just 34 behind Charlie Osborne who held the No. 2 position on the career scoring record book with 3,647 points. Lyon County’s offense was limited with Reddick the only other player to hit double digits. Reddick finished with 11 points and a team-high five rebounds. Shoulders finished with nine points and 4 rebounds.
The Lexington Catholic offense worked as a well oiled machine with four players hitting double digits. Tyler Doyle topped the Lexington Catholic scorebook with 19 points and five assists followed by Hudson Sparks with 18 points. Miller Williams and Reece Potter each finished with 11.
In the well balanced attack, the Knights also recorded 24 team assists. Brody Turner may not have put any points on the board for Lexington Catholic, but finished with a team high five assists. Rowan Williams was also an offensive game changer for the Knights. While he only finished with two baskets of his own, the four assists he tallied led to double figures for his team. Lyon County recorded just 10 team assists.
In the end, Lyon County struggled to gain control of the ball. Lexington Catholic pulled down 40 rebounds compared to the Lyons’ overall rebounding just 20 boards. Big man Reece Potter, the 7-foot-tall center had a team high 13 rebounds, helping Lexington Catholic to add 10 second chance points. Overall, the Knights’ offensive rebounding percentage was 53.8% compared to the Lyon’s 23.5%. Lyon did better on defensive rebounds with 46.2%, but Lexington Catholic came up with the ball noticeably more at 76.5%.
Lexington Catholic kept a fresh rotation of players dedicated to specifically shutting down the Lyon County trio of Perry, Shoulders and Reddick, forcing 13 turnovers. The Knights were then able to convert those turnovers into 22 points. Lyon did manage to pick up 14 points off of 13 Knights turnovers.
Eventually, the lack of foul calls and the physicality of the game wore the Lyons down while the Knights had a deep bench on standby. Lexington Catholic got 17 points off the bench, just three points shy of their winning margin. Lyon relied on efficient outside shooting, while Lexington Catholic picked up 44 points in the paint to helps the Knights finish with a 61.2% effective field goal percentage compared to the Lyons’ 49.1%
Lyon County: 14 10 17 12 — 53
Lexington Catholic: 17 19 20 17 — 73
Lyon County — Perry 25, Reddick 11, Shoulders 9, Kirk 4, Carson Collins 2, DeFew 2.
Lexington Catholic — Doyle 19, Sparks 18, Miller Williams 11, Potter 11, Reinhart 8, Rowan Williams 4, Smith 2.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.