After getting the weight of that first All A Classic win thrown off their shoulders Thursday, the Lyon County Lyons can now hone in on working to be the team that gets to cut the nets down Sunday afternoon. The next step in that process comes Friday evening in the form of a quarterfinal match against Walton-Verona.
While the Lyons and the Bearcats are not exactly well acquainted, they have met once in recent years. After the All A Classic was initially canceled in 2021 due to a winter storm, the Lyons and the Bearcats decided to go ahead and play a game in McBrayer Arena, since they were already in the vicinity.
That contest did not go the Lyons’ way as they fell to Walton-Verona 74-70. Travis Perry scored 22 in that contest. Jackson Shoulders finished with 19, while Brady Shoulders also hit double figures with 10.
Connor Davis and Brant Smithers combined to score 48 points in the game as the Bearcats picked up the 4-point win.
Walton-Verona (15-6) is a familiar face in the All A Classic scene. The Bearcats have won 6 of the last 8 Eighth Region All A Classic championship. WVHS made it to the championship game in 2018 before falling.
The Bearcats easily handled Augusta in their opening-round game 65-39. Aaron Gutman had 20 points for Walton-Verona, just below his season average of 21. Max Montgomery added 19. Julian Dixon, who is the Bearcats second-leading scorer on the year at 15.5, ended up with 8 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.
Even with the win, the Bearcats were another team that had trouble shooting in The Corbin Arena, hitting just 37 percent of their shots from the field.
Lyon County (19-1) picked up its first-ever All A Classic win Thursday by knocking off Owensboro Catholic. Travis Perry had a huge game for the Lyons, finishing with 37 points. Brady Shoulders added 13 points and 14 rebounds as the Lyons outrebounded the Aces 42 to 18.
The winner of the game between Lyon County and Walton-Verona will advance to Saturday’s semifinals to take on the winner of the game between Newport and Danville Christian.
