At times it was not the prettiest Thursday night, but the Lyon County Lyons have now won 18 straight games over the past two seasons. The Lyons turned back a third quarter rally from the Christian County Colonels and then pulled away late in the game to take a 67-52 win in Thursday evening’s Grind Session at the CFSB Center at Murray State University.
The Lyons, who won the last 16 games of the season on their way to the state title last year, have now won their first two games of the 2024-2025 season.
Led by a hot start from Nolan Coffman, the Lyons hit the Colonels with a 10-0 run early in the first quarter to take a 13-3 lead. The Lyon County lead was eight at 18-10 when the quarter ended. Coffman finished the first quarter with 12 points. Zion Acree and Aiden Jesse had four points each for the Colonels.
The Lyons cooled off a little bit from the field in the second quarter and had some issues with ball safety and Christian County was able to make a bit of run. Trailing 23-13 early in the second, the Colonels scored ten straight to tie things up at 23-23. Darren Bigbee played a big role in igniting the run.
Lyon County responded by outscoring Christian County 8 to 2 over the rest of the half to take a 31-25 lead into the break. The Colonels did the job on Nolan Coffman in the quarter, holding him scoreless in the second. Bray Kirk ended up with 9 points in the half for the Lyons. Darren Bigbee had 6 in the half and Aiden Jesse added 5 more for the Colonels.
Early on in the second half, the Lyons’ shooting woes continued and Christian County drew even closer. The Colonels scored five straight and cut the lead to 33-32. Getting big plays from Kam Williams and Aiden Jesse, the Colonels pulled even at 38-38 and then took the lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the game at 39-38.
Sparked by the defensive pressure of Carson Collins and Cooper Collins, the Lyons closed out the third quarter with a 13-4 run to take a 51-43 lead going into the final eight minutes. The Lyons also got a big offensive boost from Isaac Defew, who had been limited to just three points in the opening half.
The Lyons scored the final seven points of the third quarter and that momentum carried over into the start of the fourth quarter. With Defew and Kirk leading the way, Lyon County completed a 15-0 run by scoring the first 8 points of the fourth quarter to blow the lead out to 59-43 and effectively wrap up the game.
Bray Kirk led four Lyons in double figures with 21 points. Nolan Coffman finished with 14, 12 of them in the first quarter. Isaac Defew added 13, ten in the second half. Carson Collins also had ten in the second half and 12 for the game.
Christian County was paced by Aiden Jesse with 11 points. Zyon Wharton and Zion Acree had 9 points each for the Colonels.
Lyon County (2-0) is back in action Saturday night at the Grind Session as they take on Caverna.
Christian County (0-2) travels to Kenwood Friday night.
