It does feel a bit odd to say this. The battle for the trip to the Corbin Arena gets underway this week as the boys’ 2nd Region All A Classic gets underway this week. That’s right, Corbin.
The All A state tournament has been moved down I-75 to the Corbin Arena due to an extensive renovation underway at McBrayer Arena in Richmond. So, for at least the 2024 tournament, the small-school champs will be crowned in the original home of the original recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The boys’ 2nd Region tournament gets underway Tuesday with first-round games played at school sites. Action Tuesday night has University Heights at Heritage Christian, Dawson Springs at Fort Campbell, Lyon County at Crittenden County, and Caldwell County at Livingston Central.
The semifinals and finals will be played at Crittenden County, with the semifinal Friday night and the championship game Saturday night.
The 2nd Region tourney has primarily belonged to University Heights. Since the 2nd Region became a part of the All A Classic in 1990, the Blazers have won 26 of the 34 regional championships. Lyon County has picked up five titles, two in the last three years. Crittenden County, Trigg County, and Webster County have one title each.
When the bracket was announced for the 2024 tournament, many could look out and see the possibility of a championship game that fans had been denied in the tournament by the luck of the draw over the past few years during the Perry, Reddick, and Shoulders run at Lyon County.
That championship matchup being Lyon County and University Heights playing for the title. The teams have met in the All A regional, just not with the championship on the line.
In 2023, Lyon County lost at UHA 74-64 in the opening round of the regional, with the Blazers going on to reach the quarterfinals of the state tournament, losing in an epict four-overtime battle with Owensboro Catholic. Lyon County would come back later in the season to roll past the Blazers by 20 points in a late-season contest at Jason White Gym.
In 2022, UHA was knocked off by Caldwell County in the regional semifinals. Lyon County would go on to beat the Tigers in the title game before falling in the opening round of the state tournament to Breathitt County.
The COVID-impacted tournament of 2021 saw the two teams matched up again in the opening round and again on the home court of one of the two teams, with Lyon County picking up a 79-77 win. The state tournament that year was on-again/off-again due to winter weather, with the Lyons dropping a 54-50 decision to the Murray Tigers in a February contest.
The two met in the semifinals of both the 2019 and 2020 tournaments with an experienced UHA team taking both meetings. The 2019 Blazer team, led by KyKy Tandy would go on to win the All A Classic state championship.
Both teams appear to be headed for the 2024 championship game. Lyon County is ranked #1 in the state and has been on a roll since the beginning of the season with their ‘Three Amigos’ of Travis Perry, Brady Shoulders, and Jack Reddick leading the way.
The Blazers picked up a trio of impressive wins in Las Vegas and manhandled both Murray and Madisonville-North Hopkins in big wins earlier in the season. UHA has four players averaging in double figures and are outscoring their opponents by 16 points a game.
Perry, Reddick, and Shoulders are averaging better than 64 points a game between them and the Lyons have won 11 games by at least 20 points against a tough, tough schedule.
Both the Lyons and the Blazers play ‘in your face’ defense and like to get up and down the floor.
The question then becomes which team in the 2nd Region All A Classic could prevent the collision of the Blazers and the Lyons in the final.
A primary darkhorse candidate would appear to be the Caldwell County Tigers. The Tigers enter the week at 6-5 and have won 3 of their last four games. The Tigers are paced by big man JayDarius Wilson, who is averaging just over 21 points a game.
The Dawson Springs Panthers started off 7-3, but have lost three of their last four, including a double-digit home lose Friday night to Caldwell County. Montgomery Johnston and Rex Blue are averaging around 19 points per game each for the Panthers.
Last year’s regional runner-up, Heritage Christian has gone 1-2 against All A opponents, losing to Dawson Springs and Caldwell County and picking up a win over Fort Campbell. Jason Leek is among the state’s leading scorers at more than 24 points per game for the Warriors.
Fort Campbell, Livingston Central, and Crittenden County appear to be long shots at this point of being teams that could prevent the Lyons or the Blazers from reaching the championship game.
Whatever happens, we will find out over the next few days, as the 2nd Region All A Classic heads for championship night on Saturday in Marion.
