Travis Perry was the name most basketball fans knew coming into Sunday’s Kentucky Junior All-Stars win over their Indiana counterparts. Derrell Bateman was the name most people were asking about after Kentucky’s 106-92 win at Jeffersonville, Ind. High School.
Bateman, preparing to enter his high school year at Christian County High School, scored 15 points and grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds in 33 minutes of action. He also led Kentucky with four assists and finished the game at +22 while on the floor. Bateman, who primarily played the post for the Colonels last year, played both guard and small forward for Kentucky. In Saturday’s loss to the Kentucky Senior All-Stars, Bateman came off the bench to score 10 points.
Sunday, Bateman got the start and scored all 15 of his points in the second half as Kentucky erased a 57-48 halftime deficit.
Meanwhile, Perry, who enters his senior season at Lyon County with over 20 Division I college offers, led Kentucky with 24 points. He was just 6-of-18 from the field but hit 11-of-11 at the free-throw line and added six rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Perry ran the point for the Kentucky juniors, who also got 23 points from Elizabethtown High’s Ayden Evans and 15 points from Warren Central’s Kade Unseld.
Kentucky shot 54 percent from the field in the second half and committed just three turnovers in the second half as they outscored Indiana 58-35.
