Turns out Lyon County can play whatever tempo you would like them to. Going into Thursday’s state tournament game between Lyon County and Newport, most thought that it would be a battle of tempos. The Lyons wanting to get up and down the floor, while the Wildcats from Northern Kentucky would try and contain the flow of the game.
However, Coach Ryan Perry, as he said in the postgame press conference, decided not to push the issue, and things tuned out just fine for the Lyons as, on the day Travis Perry became the state’s all-time leading scorer, Lyon County advanced to the state tournament quarterfinals for the second year in a row with a 61-46 win over Newport.
Much had been made over the difference in styles between the teams coming into the game and whether or not the Lyons could adapt if Newport got the game slowed down. But it turned to be much ado about nothing.
The first couple of minutes it looked as if the Lyons might win the battle of tempos. After a Travis Perry three and back-to-back steals and scores from Brady Shoulders, the Lyons had a 7-3 lead less than 90 seconds into the game. But things settled down pace wise pretty quickly after that.
Lyon County would manage just six points over the rest of the quarter on threes from Perry and Jack Reddick as the Lyons held a 13-11 lead after the opening eight minutes of the game. Taylen Kinney helped keep the Wildcats in the game with five first-quarter points.
Newport was able to continue to control the tempo of the game as the second quarter got rolling. A Travis Perry score early in the quarter put Lyon County up 17-11, but the Wildcats had the Lyons a bit off kilter at this point and made it pay off. Led by Marquez Miller, the Wildcats went on a 9-2 run to take a 20-19 lead with 2:35 to go in the half. Miller scored seven of the points in that run.
But that would be the last time that Newport would see the lead.
Sparked by a Jack Reddick three, the Lyons scored the final seven points of the half, the last two coming on a putback by Travis Perry with five seconds left in the half, to take a 26-20 lead into the break and, more importantly, seat ole Uncle Mo on their bench to start the second half.
The Lyons then grabbed firm control of the game by scoring the first six points of the second half to complete a 13-0 run that put them in front 32-20. After that point, Newport would get no closer than eight points for the rest of the game. Every time it looked as if the Wildcats might be ready to make a move to try to get back in the game, the Lyons would find an answer, often time in the play of ‘The Three Amigos’ Jack Reddick, Brady Shoulders, and Travis Perry.
Lyon County held a 10-point lead as the third quarter ended at 40-30.
The Lyons then dropped the hammer right on top of the heads of the Wildcats to open the final quarter. Lyon County outscored Newport 17-7 over the first five minutes of the final quarter to blow the lead out to 57-37 and seal their second appearance in the state quarterfinals in as many years.
It was during that 17-7 run that Travis Perry first tied ‘King’ Kelly Coleman as the state’s all-time leading scorer, and then in a magical moment with the Rupp Arena crowd on its feet, breaking the record with a free throw that nearly lifted the roof off the historical building.
From there it was a matter of riding it out to the final margin as the Lyons kept their season moving on.
In addition to setting the record, Perry led the Lyons with 23 points and 6 rebounds. Both Jack Reddick and Brady Shoulders finished with double-doubles. Reddick had 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Shoulders finished with 12 and 13.
For Newport, Marquez Miller led the way with 17 points. Taylen Kinney was the only other Wildcat to hit double digits with 11 points.
Two big stats in the game were that Lyon County held Newport to just 32.1 percent shooting, including 25 percent from behind the arc. Lyon County also won the battle of the boards 40-26.
Lyon County (31-5) now moves on to Friday night’s quarterfinals, where they will play the final game of the day at 8:30pm eastern time.
