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After Friday night, you wonder if Derrin Boyd went up to KyKy Tandy on the basketball court and said “I gotcha this time.”
During their senior seasons at University Heights Academy and Caldwell County High School, KyKy Tandy and Derrin Boyd, who were arguably the two best players in the region that season, played in two of the more memorable 2nd Region games in recent history. Friday night, they played in another really good one in what could quite likely be their final meeting on the basketball court.
A good one, but not like the two during the final days of the 2018-2019 season. Those two were really special meetings between the two players.
On February 12, 2019, the Blazers and the Tigers met in Blazer Gym for a highly anticipated matchup and it lived up to the billing. Derrin Boyd outscored KyKy Tandy that night 43 to 40, but it was Tandy’s Blazers, who were coming off an All A Classic state championship, that found a way to hold off the Tigers in one of the best games of that season and take the 96-91.
With that game in everyone’s memory, expectations were again high as the two teams took to the court again on March 2. This time the stakes were much higher as the setting was the 2nd Region semifinals at Madisonville-North Hopkins High School. This one was memorable as well but for a different reason.
KyKy Tandy had one of the biggest single-half performances in 2nd Region tournament history as the Blazers again put up 96 points, but this time they limited Caldwell County to just 60 points as UHA advanced on to the regional title game the following night. Tandy scored 32 of his 36 points in the first half as the Blazers ran out to a big lead and never looked back.
Derrin Boyd had another good game to lead the Tigers, scoring 19 points and coming up with 5 assists, but on this night the Blazers did not let the Tigers fight their way back into the game as they had just a couple of weeks earlier.
The two also met during the 2017 season in the 2nd Region All A Classic. Tandy scored 24 and Boyd scored 10 as the Blazers took an 87-64 win in the championship game. As freshmen in January of 2016, Tandy scored 40 and Boyd 16 as the Blazers picked up the win in the All A Classic over the Tigers. The two teams met earlier that season, but Boyd did not play in the game.
Friday night, the two were on the same court once again as Derrin Boyd and the College of Charleston hosted KyKy Tandy and Florida Atlantic in what turned out to be a dandy of a ballgame.
College of Charleston came out with a scoreboard-testing 119 to 116 overtime win over the Owls. Both Boyd and Tandy played significant roles for their teams in the game.
Tandy, who started for Florida Atlantic, played 36 minutes and scored 15 points. He was 3 of 3 from behind the 3-point line and had two steals and one assist.
Boyd came off the bench for College of Charleston, played 31 minutes, and scored 18 points. He was 4 of 7 from behind the 3-point line, pulled down 7 rebounds, and dished out 6 assists.
If this truly turns out to be their final meeting on the basketball court, it was a pretty good chapter to close out the book on the head-to-head meetings between two of the best to ever play in the 2nd Region.
