How did future UK basketball player Malachi Moreno play in McDonald’s All-American Game?
Future Kentucky basketball player Malachi Moreno competed on one of the biggest stages in all of high school basketball Tuesday night.
Moreno — the 6-foot-11 center who just won a Sweet 16 state championship with Georgetown’s Great Crossing High School — was one of the 24 participants in this year’s McDonald’s All-American Game, which took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in New York City.
Moreno scored nine points in 16 minutes for the East team in a 105-92 loss to the West team. He added five rebounds and two blocks. Darryn Peterson, a Kansas signee, led the West with a game-high 18 points as part of that winning effort.
Moreno arrived late to the festivities because of Great Crossing’s run to the state championship. The Boys’ Sweet 16 was delayed by one week this year due to men’s NCAA Tournament games that were held in Rupp Arena.
“Unfortunately, these two (events) kind of intermingled,” Moreno said Monday during a McDonald’s All-American Game media day event. “But, I actually talked to the people who run McDonald’s and I said, ‘I’m going to win a state championship before I show up.’ And they allowed me to do it. So I was able to stay at home, win a championship, get on a flight the next morning and come to McDonald’s.”
Moreno is one of three high school seniors who have signed to play for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats next season. Moreno is joined in UK’s three-player recruiting class by left-handed guards Jasper Johnson and Acaden Lewis. Of this group, only Moreno — who won the 2025 Kentucky Mr. Basketball award — was named a McDonald’s All-American Game honoree.
“It’s truly a blessing,” Moreno said. “This is definitely something you dream of as a little kid. Just growing up, watching your heroes be McDonald’s All-Americans. Just being able to have this opportunity, definitely meant a lot to me.”
Kentucky’s signed and sealed trio of Moreno, Johnson and Lewis gives UK the sixth-best high school recruiting class in the nation for 2025, according to the 247Sports Composite leaderboard. Duke is projected to have the nation’s best incoming group of freshmen, followed by Houston, UConn, Arkansas, Notre Dame and then the Wildcats.
According to UK, Moreno is the 79th McDonald’s All-American to sign with Kentucky. Moreno is the sixth All-American from the commonwealth to sign with UK, along with Dirk Minniefield (1979), Winston Bennett (1983), Rex Chapman (1986), Rajon Rondo (2004) and Reed Sheppard (2023).
Moreno was the first player in the 2025 high school recruiting class to commit to Pope and Kentucky when he did so last August. He won’t be the first McDonald’s All-American Game honoree to play for Pope at UK, though. Brandon Garrison — a sophomore center on the 2024-25 UK team who began his college career at Oklahoma State — was a 2023 Burger Boy.
During his media day appearance Monday, Moreno talked about the outlook for next season’s UK team in Pope’s second year leading the program.
“My biggest takeaway was definitely how he could build a team so quick. ... Especially for that caliber of a job, I think he did an amazing job,” Moreno said of Pope. “I think that just shows, like next season it’s going to be completely different, but at the same time it’s going to be the same. We’re coming in, we’re going to work hard, we’re going to win a lot and we’re going to make some noise like he did this year.”
In another commonwealth-related note, Moreno is just the 16th player from Kentucky to be honored as a McDonald’s All-American since the game began in 1977. The most recent player from Kentucky to earn this distinction was ex-Cat Reed Sheppard (North Laurel) in 2023.
Like Sheppard, Moreno is also a rare McDonald’s All-American honoree from Kentucky who isn’t from a Lexington or Louisville high school, although Great Crossing’s Georgetown campus is less than 20 miles from Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. Only five Kentucky-based players from a non-Lexington or Louisville high school have received the honor of being named a McDonald’s All-American. The others were Chane Behanan (Bowling Green, 2011), Scotty Hopson (University Heights, 2008) and Rex Chapman (Apollo, 1986).
UK recruit Nate Ament also plays in McDonald’s All-American Game
Also in action during Tuesday night’s game was high school senior Nate Ament, a five-star power forward who is still considering coming to Kentucky for college.
Ament scored 12 points and grabbed three rebounds in 21 minutes for the East.
The 6-foot-9 Ament is down to five schools in his recruitment. He will be choosing between Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Tennessee.
Ament was initially targeting the McDonald’s All-American Game as the setting for his college commitment, but the timetable for his college decision has been pushed back.
“I want to play for a coach that believes in me, is going to push me to be better than I already am,” Ament said Monday during a media interview session in New York. “But also (who) allows me to showcase my skills and teaches me how to play the game the right way. Also, a great recruiting class. Players that I want to play with. Players that want to play with me. Those two things are huge, and then also the culture of the schools and the team. Do they have a family aspect? Do they bond well, on and off the court? So those things are probably going to play the biggest part into it.”
If Ament were to commit to the Wildcats, then Kentucky would jump Arkansas and Notre Dame on the team recruiting leaderboard.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
