Lyon County's Travis Perry [Ashlyn Brown photo]
This year’s Marshall County Hoopfest has a “great mix of high school talent and really good prep teams” that Marshall athletics director Mike Johnson believes will make this one of the best Hoopfest events ever.
“We have Louisville Ballard, Male, and Ashland. Those are three of the top 10 teams in the state,” Johnson said.
“McCracken County is going to be really strong. Lincoln County is a very good team. Graves County is going to be a really strong team. Lyon County is also going to be very good.”
Lyon County also has one of the state’s most intriguing players in sophomore guard Travis Perry. He has already scored almost 2,200 points and has a chance if he stays healthy to break the all-time Kentucky high school scoring mark of 4,337 points set by King Kelly Coleman.
Johnson has set up games on Dec. 3 with Kentucky high school teams playing teams from Tennessee, Georgia, California, and Illinois.
Defending state champion Highlands and Lincoln County, the preseason 12th Region favorite, will both play Cane Ridge (TN. Brandon Miller, a top 15 player and Alabama signee, is Cane Ridge’s top player and a versatile 6-7 forward. He was recruited by UK but did not have Kentucky as one of his final choices. Cane Ridge was state runner-up last season.
Goodpasture (TN.) plays Lyon County on Dec. 3 and won a state championship last year. The top returning player is guard Isaiah West, who had offers from Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Georgia among his 13 offers.
Ballard, a state semifinalist last year, will take on Prolific Prep (Calif.) on Dec. 3. Prolific Prep features 6-10 Adem Bona, who recently signed with UCLA over UK.
Also on Dec. 3 Ashland will face North Gwinnett (Ga. who is led by 6-7 R.J. Godfrey, a three-star forward with 18 offers — including ones from Ole Miss, Auburn, Missouri, and Georgia. Gwinnett also has another Division prospect, 6-7 Thomas Allard, on the other wing.
“Both those games will be nice matchups and should be very entertaining,” Johnson said.
So should the Highlands-McCracken County and Ashland-Ballard games on Dec. 4.
Dream City (Ariz.), UK signee Shaedon Sharpe’s former team, will play games both Dec. 4 and Dec. 5.
Johnson hopes the trend continues to where there can be a “normal” Hoopfest with no real restrictions because the event is such a big fundraiser for the school.
“Right now we can sell as many tickets as fans we can get in there,” Johnson said. “We really feel like both Friday night and Saturday night will put the energy back in Hoopfest with 4,000 to 5,000 fans out to watch high school basketball.”
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The full schedule can be found at https://www.thegrindsession.com/event/marshall-county-hoopfest21/.
