The Lyon County Lyons will get the chance to defend their 2nd Region All A championship. The Lyons had to fend off a blazing hot start from University Heights Academy and then pulled away in the second half to take a 96-75 win in Dawson Springs.
The win was the third straight for the Lyons since losing four straight
Right out of the gate, the Blazers came out determined not to let last year’s rout at Crittenden County happen again. There were three lead changes in the opening minutes of the quarter. With the game tied at 10-10, UHA went on a 12-3 run to take a 22-13 lead.
The Lyons had no early answers for the Blazers’ 1-2 punch of Tylin George and Elijah Walton, who were in control of the action on the floor in the opening minutes.
Then came what turned out to be the turning point of the night. With 53.8 seconds left in the first, Walton went strong to the basket and elevated looking for his shot. He was fouled on the play and came down awkwardly. After several minutes on the floor, Walton was assisted off the court, not able to place any weight on his left leg.
The Blazers finished out the quarter with a double-digit lead at 25-15.
Getting some solid minutes from Ryan Luckey and Jaiden Miles, UHA came out and extended the lead early in the second quarter to as many as 14 points at 33-19. However, the absence of Walton began to show up in a couple of ways at that point.
The Lyons began to get more offensive rebounds and some better looks on the outside and made a move to get back in the game. Cooper Collins knocked down a couple of threes and Carson Collins made some big plays inside and the Lyons went on an 8–0 run to cut the lead to 33-27.
Lyon County had a chance to tie the game with under a second to go in the half, but Bray Kirk made 1 of 2 to cut the lead to 37-36 at the half.
Coming out of the half, something happened for the Lyons that did not happen in the first sixteen minutes. Shots from behind the arc started to fall. In fact, the Lyons knocked down ten 3-pointers in the second half after only three in the first half.
The combination of Lyon County threes starting to fall and not having Elijah Walton to help alleviate the press quickly undid the Blazers’ hopes of upsetting the Lyons. A 12-4 spurt midway through the third put Lyon County up 57-47 and the Lyons would not lead by less than nine points for the rest of the game. The third quarter ended with Lyon County up 64-53.
The fourth quarter saw the Lyon County defense create runouts and transition threes and the game got away from the Blazers. A 13-0 run took a 67-58 lead and blew it open to 80-58. From there the drama concerned whether or not Lyon County would hit 100 and whether or not Tylin George would reach 50 points.
For Lyon County, Bray Kirk led five players in double figures with 32. Carson Collins and Nolan Coffman added 15 points each. Cooper Collins hit for 14, including four made 3-pointers. Isaac Defew also hit double digits with 10.
A monster night for Tylin George, who finished with 48 points, 27 of them in the second half. Elijah Walton had 7 points in the first quarter before he got hurt, not to return to the game. Ryan Luckey added 6 points.
With their second straight win, the Lyons improve to 7-4 on the season and advance to the 2nd Region All A championship game, which is tentatively set for Saturday night.
The Lyons will be looking for their second straight All A regional title and 4th in the last five seasons.
University Heights drops to 3-9 with the loss. The Blazers are set to return to action Monday night on the road at Hopkins County Central.
One Response
Prayers for Elijah Walton!!
Hope he’s okay!!