Bracken County junior Blake Reed an elite scorer and entertaining player

Bracken County junior Blake Reed has a chance to be a 4,000-point career scorer. (William Jones Photo)

Bracken County junior Blake Reed probably will always remember Tuesday’s game against Mason County in the White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic at Lexington Catholic High School.

He poured in 47 points in a rare regular-season game against district rival Mason County in a 65-63 loss — Mason’s Terrell Henry hit a shot at the buzzer to win the game — that put him over the 3,000-point mark.

His brother, Cayden, a sophomore, had 14 points and he’s also scored over 1,000 points. His father, Adam, is Bracken County’s coach and is also a member of the 1,000-point club at the school.

“I probably played AAU with 80 percent of the people on the court last night,” Reed said Wednesday. “I grew up with all of them. To reach 3,000 points in that game, it really hits home and I will always remember that.”

The 6-0 guard scored 404 points as a seventh-grader at Augusta before transferring to Bracken. He scored 676 points his first year with the Polar Bears averaging 22.5 points per game. He averaged 22.9 points as a freshman and scored 618 points. He had 968 more as a sophomore when Bracken finished 24-10 and reached the 10th Region Tournament title game for the first time since 1955.

Reed had 3,029 points going into Wednesday’s game against Holy Cross making him one of less than 40 players to reach the 3,000-point mark. Only one — King Kelly Coleman of Wayland — has reached 4,000 points (4337 from 1953-56). He had 24 more points in the 89-76 loss to Covington Holy Cross to raise his career total to 3,053 and got 24 again today to make it 3,077.

Obviously, Reed has a chance to reach 4,000 points along with Lyon County junior Travis Perry who had 27 points in a win over Holy Cross at the same tourney Tuesday to push his career total to 3,573 points.

And the same tourney has another 3,000-point scorer in UK signee Reed Sheppard of North Laurel.

Reed watched both of them play Tuesday before his game.

“I do not know Reed but me and Travis have played some AAU together. We are pretty good friends,” Reed said. “That’s really elite company to be in with them and I am glad to be in that group. Both of them are high Division 1 players and I think I am right there with them.”

He’s not yet attracted the same type of recruiting attention they have even though he has a chance to break the state’s all-time record for 3-pointers made.

“I think it has to do with the small school type of thing. We are not a huge school and don’t get a lot of attention,” Reed said. “The last couple of years for various reasons I have not played AAU. This summer I plan to play and I am not going to rush to make any decisions about college.”

He knew a lot of college coaches would be watching this event  but did not let that bother him.

“We wanted this to be a coming out party for Bracken County and myself. We know we can hang with the big dogs,” Reed, who had 59 points and 10 3’s against Augusta earlier this season, said. “There was a bunch of pressure but I love pressure. I usually do my best in those games.

“The amount of time I spend in the gym is probably more than 99 percent of what other people spend in the gym. I work on my shot and game-like moves. I really think my ability to shoot the ball puts in the top one percent of scorers. I can put the ball in the hole.”

HIs father also taught him early not to fear contact going to the basket and to be able to finish plays.

“I think I am a natural scorer,” he said.

He credits his older sister, a former Pikeville University player who started her college coaching career this season, for helping him with his shot.

“She is 22 and I probably still can’t handle her on the court.

Reed knows not a lot of basketball fans in Kentucky have even seen him play. He hopes to lead his team back to the All “A” Classic state tourney and get Bracken to the 10th Region Tournament, too.

“I think if i have not seen me play, I would want to,” Reed said. “I think I am one of the most entertaining players in the state. I don’t mind passing. That’s a big part of the game. It’s not hard for me to give the ball up but if I can get to the basket and get the shot off, I will do that because I believe in my ability to score.”