Ashland coach believes it would be “awesome” for Travis Perry to set scoring record at state tourney

North Laurel coach Nate Valentine says both Travis Perry, above, and Reed Sheppard are "generational" players. (Les Nicholson Photo)

Ashland coach Ryan Boone played high school basketball at Ashland and is part of Ashland’s fifth straight state tournament team.

He appreciates what high school basketball means in Kentucky and how historic it will be if Lyon County junior Travis Perry breaks King Kelly Coleman’s all-time career scoring mark at the state tourney this week.

Perry is 20 points behind Coleman’s record of 4,337 points going into Thursday afternoon’s game against 9th Region champion Newport.

“The stage is set for that. As a fan of Kentucky high school basketball you could not ask for a better situation to be in and to have that opportunity is special,” Boone said. “We played Travis last year. I think the world of him and his dad (Lyon County coach Ryan Perry).

“They have a great team and capability to really make some noise (in the tournament). Lyon County can leave there with the support of the entire arena (because of Perry). That’s kind of what makes the tournament fun and special.

“As a coach and fan of high school basketball, I hope he gets it (the scoring record). I think that would be awesome for him.”

North Laurel coach Nate Valentine understands playing with the spotlight Perry has had on him this year because he coaches UK signee Reed Sheppard, a McDonald’s All-American and almost certain Kentucky Mr. Basketball.

“This (the scoring record) will just add to the legend of it all,” Valentine said. “The unfortunate thing is that everybody has a platform to say all the negative things (on social media). Travis and his father have done a great job handling that. You have to learn to deal with it. There is no road map for it.

“If you are a college guy at a Power-5 school, that’s one thing. But critics coming at you at 16 or 17 (years old) is not fair.”

Valentine said he’s enjoyed having his team compete against Perry and Lyon County. He also has seen how often people want to compare Perry and Sheppard.

“Both of them are great but different,” Valentine said. “Travis is a tremendous scorer, one of the best I have seen. Reed is a scorer with playmaking ability and is tremendous on the defensive end. Both are generational players. Those names are going to hang around a long time.”

Perry averages 32 points per game while Sheppard averages 22 points per game and has over 3,700 points himself.

If both teams win Thursday, they will meet in the quarterfinals Friday. However, GRC has to play George Rogers Clark, the defending state champion, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday while Lyon takes on Newport, which has three future Division I players, at 1:30 p.m.