Lyon County-North Laurel Showdown Produces Magical Performances from Travis Perry and Reed Sheppard

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Seldom do high profile high school matchups live up to the hype but this one certainly did Saturday night when Lyon County held off North Laurel 90-83 at Lexington Catholic High School.

Both teams won regional titles last year and easily could again this year. Both teams also feature star players — Kentucky signee Reed Sheppard of North Laurel and potential all-time state scoring leader Travis Perry of Lyon County. They both delivered marquee performances, too.

Perry, a junior who has a Kentucky offer along with many others, had 45 points on 17-for-26 shooting from the field, including 10-for-16 from 3-point range. He scored 10 straight points to open the fourth quarter and put Lyon in control.

Sheppard had “only” 32 points on 10-for-20 shooting, including 5-for-13 from 3, but he had a triple-double with 13 assists and 10 rebounds. He also had three steals and two blocks.

“It was just a fun game,” Perry said after Lyon raised its record to 14-4. “You love playing in games like this and our team was really excited. It was fun to play against Reed. We texted before the game and I knew he was a great player.”

Sheppard said he told Perry not to be shooting 3’s over him in his pregame text but Perry did not heed the advice.

“We are a little short-handed right now but overall we played well,” Sheppard said. “It was a fun game with a big crowd. I think we put on a pretty good show.”

The show didn’t take long to get started, either.

Sheppard scored off a steal, Perry hit a step-back 3-pointer and Sheppard had two assists — in the first 90 seconds. Perry drove the baseline and scored and a few plays later had a steal and breakaway. Perry hit another pull-up 15-foot shot and got an assist before burying a deep 3-pointer one play after Sheppard had blocked his breakaway lay-up — and that all came in the first six minutes of play.

Perry had 12 points, one steal, and one assist in the first quarter alone while Sheppard had five points, four assists, and one steal.

Sheppard was electric in the second quarter when he erupted for 17 points. He had 22 points at halftime on 7-for-11 shooting, including 4-for-7 from 3, but also had eight assists, five rebounds, three steals, and two blocked shots.

Perry finished the first half with 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including 3-for-7 from 3, along with four assists and one rebound but North Laurel (9-7) led 50-41. However, the Lyons got 25 points in the third quarter — Perry had four 3’s — and 24 more in the fourth.

Brady Shoulders, who went over 1,000 career points, had 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting and 10 rebounds and four assists for Lyon. Jack Reddick put in 12 points on 6-for-14 shooting and freshman Bray Kirk made all five shots he took and scored 10 points.

For North Laurel, Brody Brock went 7-for-15 overall and 5-for-10 on 3’s to score 19 points while Kole Jervis had 13 and Kyler Elza 12. Second leading scorer Ryan Davidson was out with an injury as was Colton Rawlings who had scored 22 points Friday in a win over Clay County.

North Laurel went 18-for-35 from 3-point range and 29-for-58 overall and still lost because Lyon was 37-for-63 overall and 13-for-25 from 3. Lyon had just five turnovers and the Jaguars made only seven.

“Both teams had a lot of guys play really well,” Perry said. “I think we all had a lot of fun and this game in this environment was another confidence boost for us because everybody knows how good Reed is.”

Sheppard said North Laurel just needs to get healthy but also what a good team Lyon is.

“They play so well together and really play hard. You can’t relax against them at all but that also makes it a lot of fun,” Sheppard said.