Lyon County junior Travis Perry, right, joined Reed Sheppard and Kentucky's other signees during his visit to Big Blue Madness in October. Last Saturday Sheppard and Perry played against each other.
Travis Perry might have scored 45 points in his team’s 90-83 win Saturday, but the Lyon County junior knew to appreciate the performance he saw from North Laurel star Reed Sheppard.
“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.”
Sheppard, a Kentucky signee, had 32 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
“Give it to my teammates. They make 3’s and run out and make layups to make me look good,” Sheppard said. “That is what we needed. We needed those younger dudes and people who don’t play as much to step up and hit some shots and guard and fight and that is what they did. I was super proud of them playing as hard as they did knowing we had some dudes out.”
Sheppard was a bit “jacked” himself. He put up a couple of deep 3-point shots and even slapped the mat at the end of the court after being called for a foul when he thought he cleanly blocked a shot by Perry.
‘It was a fun game. It’s hard to hide all the emotions in a game like that with the atmosphere we had,” Sheppard said.
North Laurel is only 9-7 this season and will play again Sunday against Mount St. Joseph of Baltimore in the Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. Three of the Jaguars’ losses this year have been to out-of-state teams, including Imhotep Charter of Philadelphia that featured UK signee Justin Edwards.
Sheppard is averaging 24.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game and shooting 46 percent from the field and 87 percent at the foul line. He’s also made 40 3-pointers.
He says he might be a “little bit” quicker than last season because of the offseason work he did in the weight room. He also says his shot is “feeling good” but he would like to be winning more.
“We knew this would be a hard game (against Lyon County) with guys we had out,” Sheppard said.
However, Sheppard said even with eyes on him after signing with Kentucky and expectations for his team, the season has still been fun.
“We are super excited to get everybody back and that will be super fun when we have everybody,” he said. “It will be kind of like a coming out party and will be good for us because it has made our other players step up. So hopefully in the long run the schedule and what we are doing will make us better at tournament time.”
He’s hoping his future team has a coming out party soon, too. Kentucky has struggled most of the season but Sheppard remains optimistic.
“I have watched them a little when we are not playing. They will be okay. They will be alright,” he said. “I get asked a lot of questions about them. But they will get things figured out and be okay.”
