Bray Kirk, Lyon County Back at State For 4th Time in 5 years

Bray Kirk holds the region championship trophy. Photo by Todd Griffin.

Being part of one regional championship team that gets to play in Rupp Arena is something most high school players dream of doing but not many get to do. However, Lyon County senior Bray Kirk is back in the state tourney for the fourth time.

Lyon (29-6) went to the state three straight years — and won the state title in 2024 — before losing in the 2nd Region semifinals in 2025. Kirk was a sophomore on the state title team and now he’s a senior — and the team’s leading scorer at 21.3 points per game — on the team that won the 2nd Region title again.

Lyon will play North Oldham Thursday night in the UK HealthCare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16® at Rupp Arena.

Kirk, a 6-foot-3 guard, helped the Lyons beat Caverna 49-46 in the All “A” Classic state championship game and now will try to help Lyon avenge a 47-37 loss to North Oldham on Dec. 29.

“It’s pretty crazy he has been on all four of our regional championship teams,” said coach Ryan Perry. “Travis (Perry) and those guys were on three of the teams, but he has been on all of them. He has been our guy the whole season. He has had a really good senior year. He put us on back in the All “A” state championship game and just took us to the win.

Junior Nolan Coffman contributes 17.9 points and a team-high 9.7 rebounds per game.

“Coffman is a stud player. He led us in rebounding last year and is averaging a double-double this year,” Perry said. “He has had some really big games. In our first regional tourney game, he had 30 points, 16 rebounds and 13 assists.”

Perry knows North Oldham presents a challenge for his team.

“We played so poorly against them before. We are not the same team that played in December and they are not either. They are also playing a lot better now,” the Lyon coach said.

Both teams rank among the state’s top 15 in scoring defense with Lyon ninth at 49.1 points per game and North Oldham 15th at 50.2. North Oldham has allowed only 36.5 points per game average in postseason play.

The Lyons are on an 11-game win streak since losing to Henderson County on Feb. 2. The Lyons beat Henderson 64-61 in the regional title game behind 24 points by Kirk, a starter on the 2024 state title team, and 12 points and 10 rebounds by Coffman.

“We were devastated last year when we lost to Henderson in the region semifinal. We thought we could go back to the state tourney last year,” Perry said. “I thought these guys were talented enough and experienced enough and had enough leadership to get back this year.”

The Lyons had not been to the state tourney since 1951 when they won the region five years ago. The team generated a huge fan following, especially with Travis Perry chasing the all-time state scoring record that he eventually eclipsed. He also won Mr. Basketball honors when Lyon won the state and signed with Kentucky. He transferred to Ole Miss after his freshman year.

“We had such a huge following for the state championship team and what they did,” the Lyon coach said. “It has carried on and we are still all basketball here in Lyon County. People support us like crazy. We still have good crowds. It’s not quite as big as when Travis and them played due to the record Travis was chasing and we had never won a state championship. But we will have a good crowd in Rupp again.”

That crowd will include Travis Perry, who is coming off a solid SEC Tournament when Ole Miss reached the tourney quarterfinals. He was 10-for-27 from 3-point range in the last three games and averaged 30 minutes per game in the four tourney games. He had 32 points in the final three games, including 16 in the win over Georgia.

“Travis is coming up to spend time with us. I wish they had been able to pull it off and win the conference tournament. They had struggled during the season but Travis had the opportunity to get out there and play in the tournament,” Ryan Perry said. “He had only been averaging 15 to 18 minutes per game but Coach left him out there, he got some confidence and he played well (in the tournament).”