Lexington Catholic tops Great Crossing in midseason top-five showdown
Maybe a game between two top-five teams on Jan. 28 doesn’t mean very much in the grand scheme of Kentucky high school basketball, but Lexington Catholic head coach Brandon Salsman isn’t taking the No. 2 Knights’ 61-52 win over No. 5 Great Crossing for granted.
“That’s one of the best teams in the state,” Salsman said. “We executed our game plan well, and I’m very happy for what we were able to do today.”
The showcase event of Franklin County’s four-game Gary Moore Classic on Saturday, the Lexington Catholic-Great Crossing matchup offered a potential 11th Region postseason preview and the first on-court meeting of Great Crossing 6-foot-11 sophomore center Malachi Moreno and Lexington Catholic 7-foot-1 senior center Reece Potter.
Both performed well. Potter, a Miami (Ohio) commit, scored 14 points to go with eight rebounds and two blocks. Moreno, who already has multiple NCAA Division I offers, including Purdue and Ohio State, scored 17 points to go with 10 rebounds and seven blocks.
“It’s probably what everybody expected. They are both great players,” Salsman said. “They’ve both got bright futures. They both might be pros. They’ve got the size to do it. I like my guy, but their guy’s pretty good.”
Lexington Catholic junior guard John Reinhart also made a huge impact, hitting back-to-back three-pointers in the first half and two more threes in the second half to stymie Great Crossing’s momentum. His three-pointer with 3:15 left in the game put Douglass up 55-47 on the heels of a huge dunk by Great Crossing’s Jeremiah Godfrey just seconds earlier. Reinhart finished with a team-high 16 points.
“It’s really fun to see what it’s going to be like in the region if we play them down the road,” Reinhart said. “It’s good to get that midseason vibe going.”
Tyler Doyle contributed 14 points and finished the game with a breakaway dunk. But aside from Doyle and Reinhart, LexCath (21-2) struggled from the field, shooting 42.9 percent. Moreno’s shot-blocking was part of that.
“To win without shooting the ball well is really big for us,” Reinhart said.
Great Crossing (20-4) shot worse, making just 37.3 percent of their field goal attempts and going 2-for-13 from three-point range. Vince Dawson scored 10 points to help the Warhawks, while point guard Junius Burrell added nine.
“We learned that they were tougher than we are,” Great Crossing head coach Steve Page said. “I thought that was the difference. We felt like they got every loose ball. I didn’t think it was our best night, but the other team was responsible for that.”
Page noted that come mid-February when postseason play begins, both teams will be “0-0.” And if the Warhawks and Knights face each other again, it will be win or go home. Lessons learned Saturday could have an impact on that game.
“It’s probably good for both of us,” Page said. “For them, mentally, it’s saying they know they can beat us. For us, now we can see it on film and at least have a little bit of a blueprint of what we’ve seen and do a better job as coaches preparing the kids.”
In Saturday’s other games in Frankfort, Sayre defeated Franklin County 64-59, East Jessamine beat Nicholas County 69-50, and Western Hills defeated Collegiate (score not posted).
This story was originally published January 28, 2023 at 11:55 PM.
