Return to Rupp: Lyons Fight Off Tigers to Repeat as 2nd Region Champs

After going 71 years without a state tournament appearance, the Lyon County Lyons are going to the Sweet 16 in back-to-back seasons. The Lyons fought off the Hopkinsville Tigers, who played one of their best games of the season, to claim the 2nd Region championship 76-70 Tuesday night at Madisonville-North Hopkins.

In winning the region title, the Lyons become the first 5th District team to win consecutive region titles.

During the 2022 state tournament, the Lyons were sort of Cinderella at the ball. This year, they will head to Lexington being considered as one of the teams that could make a deep run and end up playing on Saturday.

Tuesday night’s championship was one full of energy, excitement, and tempo — a game that was well worthy of determining who got to load up and head for Lexington next week.

The game opened at Indy 500 pace. The Lyons took a quick 6-2 lead, but the Tigers roared back with six straight, and Antonio Williams was just getting warmed up in the quarter. After Travis Perry evened things up at 8-8, two threes from Bubba Leavell kicked off a run that saw Hoptown go up 16-10.

Lyon County responded with a 7-0 run, keyed by the play of Jack Reddick, that moved them back in front at 17-16.

Antonio Williams then took over the final two minutes of the first quarter as Hopkinsville outscored the Lyons from that point 12-3 and took a 28-20 lead after one. It was a monster quarter for Williams, who scored 17 of Hoptown’s 28 points.

The Tigers were burning the nets in the first 8 minutes, knocking down 12-19 from the field, while Lyon County was trying to find its shooting eye, connecting on just 6 of 16 from the field. But you know that Lyon County is not likely to shoot that way very long.

Brady Shoulders came out to start the second and scored seven quick points to cut the lead to 28-27. With Hopkinsville holding a 33-30 lead, Shoulders and Reddick kick-started an 8-0 run for the Lyons that put the lead back in the Lyon County column at 38-33.

Antonio Williams and Leavell, who were both big in the opening half, helped pull the Tigers back even at 39-39 with less than two minutes to go in the half. But, Lyon County took some momentum into the break scoring the final five points of the half, including  Perry’s first three of the night, and took a 44-39 lead into the locker room.

Lyon County’s three-point shooting was big in the first half as the Lyons knocked down 7 of 14 from behind the arc. And, after shooting just 6 of 16 in the opening quarter, the Lyons were 9 of 15 overall in the second quarter. Reddick had 15 for Lyon County and Shoulders added 13.

Hoptown trailed by five at the break despite Williams having 21 points, shooting 50 percent from the field, not committing a single turnover, and limiting the opportunities for Perry.

The third quarter was almost Perry vs Leavell as the two teams kept the crowd on its feet with another frenetic quarter of action. Two quick baskets from Perry extended the lead to 48-39 and the Tigers appeared to be on the verge of tumbling over the brink. But Hoptown would not quite go down that easy.

Leavell and Jacob Gavin scored 8 points in a two-minute span as the Tigers cut the lead down to 50-47 with 4:46 to go in the third. Hopkinsville and the Lyons battled back and forth for the remainder of the quarter. Perry scored to make it 61-56 with 40 seconds left, but then Leavell connected with 4 seconds left to send it into the final quarter at 61-58.

Perry and Leavell each had 11 points in the quarter.

The Lyons then made their move towards Rupp as the final quarter got underway. Led by Perry, who was in the midst of a stellar second half, Lyon County opened the fourth with a 9-2 blitz that got the lead out to double-figures at 70-60 with 3:45 to go.

Hopkinsville scored five quick points to trim the lead to 70-65 with 2:06 left. A three from Leavell would cut the lead to 74-70 with 15.7 seconds left but the Tigers were then forced to foul Perry, who sealed the championship with two free throws with 9.6 seconds left. The Lyon County fans finally got their chance to celebrate when Hoptown missed a desperation three with 2.3 seconds to go.

After being contained somewhat in the first half, Perry took over for the Lyons over the final 16 minutes of the game and ended up with 33 points. The 33 leaves Perry just 20 away from tying ‘King’ Kelly Coleman and just 21 away from becoming the state’s all-time leading scorer.

Reddick, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, came up big for the Lyons, finishing with 24 points. The other of the ‘Three Amigos’, Brady Shoulders, had 15 points and seven rebounds.

Leavell and Williams very nearly led the Tigers to a big regional upset. Leavell finished with 25 points and six rebounds while Williams ended up with 23 points and 8 rebounds. One of the keys to Lyon County moving on was the defensive job they did on Williams after the opening quarter, holding him to six points over the final three quarters. KeiMarion Smith also had double-figures with 12 points.

Two big team stats from the game in favor of Lyon County were rebounds and 3-point shooting. The Lyons ended up outrebounding Hopkinsville 34-31 and made 9 three-pointers while the Tigers made six.

The Lyons pick up their 30th win of the season and their 16th straight as they improve to 30-5.

Lyon County becomes the first 5th District team to repeat as region champions.

Hopkinsville sees its season come to an end at 15-17. The Tigers wrap up their season in the regional title game for the second year in a row.

Up next for Lyon County is a return to Rupp Arena for the UK HealthCare Boys Sweet 16. The Lyons will take on 9th Region winner Newport on Thursday, March 16, at 1:30 pm in the second game of the day session. Newport advanced to its first Sweet 16 since 2010 by defeating Cooper 44-42.