‘She earned this.’ Sayre’s Kylee Dennis tops 2,000 points for her career.
Sayre’s Kylee Dennis appears to have saved her best season for last.
The Spartans’ 5-foot-10 point guard ranks second in the state in scoring with 26.9 points per game.
And Wednesday, in a 63-58 win at 42nd District rival Scott County, Dennis eclipsed 2,000 points for her career, making her one of a very few female Lexington players to reach that mark and the first girl at Sayre to do so. Her 30 points against the Cardinals gave her 2,015 and counting.
“Man, it felt great. I’ve been wanting to do it since I was a little kid,” Dennis said. “Me and my dad would talk about it. It’s great to be able to accomplish this and move on to college with 2,000 points — and being the first at Sayre to do it makes it special.”
Her dad, former University of Kentucky football player Harold Dennis, accepted his daughter’s toss of the game ball as he stood a few rows up in the stands. He’s not going to get to keep it.
“Naw. It’s going to be in my room next to my 1,000,” she said, smiling.
That’s where it belongs, dad said.
“This is hers. She’s earned this,” Harold Dennis said after turning away a few postgame hangers-on who wanted to take a shot with it before the gym shut down. “It’s been a long time in the making. I don’t know that she set out years ago to hit this 2K mark, but what a milestone for her.”
Kylee Dennis grabbed it by scoring 16 of her team’s first 19 points in the first quarter against Scott County. She knew she needed one point to hit 2,000 when her short baseline jumper bounced off the front of the rim. She followed the shot in and put it back up for the clincher. Sayre called a timeout and the Scott County PA announcer graciously noted the moment for Dennis and the crowd.
Her teammates were helping her keep track, especially Sayre’s second-leading scorer Sophia Richardson, who is currently sidelined with an injury.
“It means a lot that I have them behind me to keep pushing me as well as my family,” Dennis said. “Even when they’re not scoring, they are cheering me on.”
Sayre aimed to get the milestone out of the way early.
“It’s been a bit of a pressure situation for her to get to 2,000,” Sayre Coach Eric Kinder said. “It was very important to get that off the table and just start playing basketball after that.”
Sayre’s Juliette Longbottom provided 18 points off the bench, a huge boost because Scott County began to pay extra defensive attention to Dennis in the second half.
It helped the Spartans (10-11) get their first district win after suffering tough losses to Bryan Station and Henry Clay in recent weeks. The Defenders nipped Sayre on a desperation shot at the buzzer on Jan. 20.
“We needed this win,” Kinder said. “To finally get over that hump and get the victory when leading is a big obstacle we needed to overcome.”
The road to 2,000 points has not been easy for Dennis. As an eighth-grader, she was part of a Sayre team that went 5-20 with her as leading scorer. The next season, Sayre gots its first district playoff win since 2003 but finished 13-14.
Her sophomore campaign was cut short by COVID-19, hurting her numbers, but actually delivering the team its best season in years at 12-4 even though Sayre was upset in the district playoffs. Her junior year was stunted by a midseason injury that caused her to miss seven games. Sayre got another rare district playoff win, but finished 11-16.
Despite the struggles, Dennis’ length, speed and tenacity for the Spartans and her Kentucky Premier AAU team earned the notice of college recruiters. She signed with Southern Indiana last November. Through it all, her dad was there.
“We talk before every game, making sure I do what I need to do to win the game for my team,” she said. “He pushes me as hard as I can go. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
Harold Dennis takes credit for some of her athletic ability, but with Kylee standing an inch taller than her dad, her mother, Donna Dennis, probably chipped in, too. The effort, however, is all Kylee.
“She’s turned into a really nice athlete. She’s got the length. She can cover ground. She’s super competitive,” Harold Dennis said. “I’m looking forward to when she grows into her body, hits the weight room on the next level and gets some solid coaching on the D-I level and see what she can do.”
Lexington’s 2K club
Female Lexington basketball players with at least 2,000 points, according to available data from the KHSAA and local schools:
2,630 — Chelsea Chowning, Lexington Catholic
2,553 — Kelli Stamper, Lexington Catholic
2,232 — Mashayla Cecil, Paul Laurence Dunbar
2,144 — Yvonne Wilson, Lexington Catholic
2,125 — Kiara Pankins, Lafayette
2,108 — Emily London, Lexington Christian
2,093 — Anaris Sickles, Lexington Catholic
2,015 — Kylee Dennis, Sayre
This story was originally published February 2, 2023 at 10:31 AM.
