After leading Great Crossing to a state title, Malachi Moreno hopes for a repeat
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- Last year, UK basketball freshman Malachi Moreno led Great Crossing to the Sweet 16 title.
- Great Crossing is in the Sweet 16 state tournament field again this year.
- The Warhawks defeated Frederick Douglass in this year’s 11th Region Tournament title game.
About a year ago, Malachi Moreno was preparing to lead his Great Crossing High School basketball team into the Sweet 16 state tournament.
The Warhawks rattled off four wins in three days at last year’s Sweet 16, securing the school’s first boys basketball state championship in the process.
Now, Great Crossing is in position to do it again. Despite losing all five starters — including Moreno, an all-freshman selection in the SEC this season — from last year’s state champion team, the Warhawks are still alive with a chance to win back-to-back titles.
Last Monday night, Great Crossing secured its third straight 11th Region Tournament title with an upset win over Lexington’s Frederick Douglass in a game played at Eastern Kentucky University. That result punched the Warhawks’ ticket to the Sweet 16 for a third straight year.
Moreno — who totaled 2,476 points and 1,959 rebounds in his Great Crossing career — has been keeping track of their journey every step of the way.
“I remember around Christmastime, they were kind of having a .500 year. They’d win some, they’d lose some,” Moreno said. “I remember they texted me in a group chat, and they said ‘Nobody believes in us right now.’ And then I texted back, and I said, for me and the guys that left, I said, ‘We believe in you, and we know what y’all can do. We know you can do it. So now you just gotta put your head down and go do it.’ And they did it.”
New players have stepped up to the plate for head coach Steve Page’s Warhawks this season. When the calendar flipped from 2025 to 2026, Great Crossing owned a pedestrian 5-6 record. But the Warhawks turned it on in the new year. They’ll enter the Sweet 16 state tournament having won 18 of their past 23 games.
Three different Great Crossing players average double figures scoring this season: Sophomore center Brady Orem (21.7 points per game), senior guard Travanti Cooper (14.1) and junior guard Graham Swartz (11.4).
Ahead of last week’s 11th Region title tilt, Cooper — who leads Great Crossing with 54 3-pointers made — texted Moreno for advice.
“He said ‘How do you handle these nerves?’” Moreno recalled. “I just shot him a little text, sending a loose confidence and just telling him that he’s a leader on the floor and he’s just got to be prepared.”
Page has been the head coach of Great Crossing for all seven seasons of its existence. The school played its first boys basketball game in 2019.
Moreno was the centerpiece of the Warhawks’ 11th Region championship teams in 2024 and 2025. He was the 2025 Mr. Basketball in the commonwealth, and he also earned McDonald’s All-American honors as a high school senior.
But now, Moreno is living and breathing this year’s Great Crossing run as a fan. Moreno was in attendance at EKU for Great Crossing’s opening win over Model in the 11th Region Tournament.
He followed the ensuing victories in the region tournament semifinals and final from afar. Great Crossing’s semifinal win over Lexington Catholic came on the same day as UK’s regular season finale against Florida. The championship win over Frederick Douglass came on the same day Moreno had an exam.
“I always kept up,” Moreno said. “I was always texting my guys, to make sure they were all cool and ready.”
What does this tell Moreno about the strength of the Warhawks’ program that Great Crossing has continued its winning ways even without him?
“I think they showed that Great Crossing is a force to be reckoned with,” Moreno said. “Even though they didn’t play as much because we had so many seniors last year, they had to go with us every day. So they knew what to expect. They had been there before, so they kind of knew how to get past that, over that hump.”
