Bryan Station hands Henry Clay its first loss as Defenders get girls-boys basketball sweep
One of Lexington’s most anticipated regular season boys high school basketball games in years tipped off Friday night at Bryan Station.
The Defenders, ranked No. 15 in last week’s Dave Cantrall Ratings, hosted the state’s last unbeaten team, No. 22 Henry Clay, in front of a standing-room only crowd at Bryan Station’s 2,000-seat gymnasium.
Moments before the opening tip, the line to get in stretched out the door even though the game could be seen on two free streaming outlets. The gym reached capacity soon after.
While Henry Clay faced its biggest test of the season, Bryan Station proved its 10-game winning streak is no fluke with an emphatic 77-51 victory.
“It’s so great to see this gym packed like that again,” Bryan Station coach Champ Ligon Jr. said. “You know, we’ve been starved, man. We’ve been starved for success. It’s been a hard three years getting this program back up to where it was last time I was here, and we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Last season’s 11-19 campaign fades in comparison to this year’s 15-1 start in which the Defenders have knocked off defending 11th Region champion Frederick Douglass and the Blue Devils in the span of four days.
“We haven’t accomplished anything yet,” Ligon cautioned. “We got a couple of really nice wins this week against really, really good teams, but it’s just two wins.”
Both Henry Clay and Bryan Station’s players met the moment in the first quarter. Henry Clay’s Kayson Brown knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minutes that sandwiched another 3 by Isaiah Stephan as the Blue Devils jumped out to a 13-6 lead.
But Bryan Station responded with a 30-9 run over the rest of the first half, highlighted by 11 points from standout sophomore Amari Owens and a pair of Matthew Golinski 3-pointers in the final two minutes before the break.
Owens, who finished with a game-high 20 points and four assists, said he and his teammates shrugged off Henry Clay’s success early.
“That didn’t really matter. We just got the ball out and got another bucket,” he said. “Then they’ll miss and we’ll score another one.”
Henry Clay (16-1, 2-1) got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way as Bryan Station reserves Justin Richmond and Rashaad Faulkner helped build the lead to as many as 31 points down the stretch. Richmond made three 3-pointers in the second half on the way to 17 points. Faulkner scored 11, including three more 3-pointers. Golinski, another reserve, finished with 12 points.
“I dress 14 kids and every one of them can come into a varsity game and be productive,” Ligon said. “It’s like we’ve got two starting fives and most teams don’t have that depth. That’s one of the things that happened in this game. They made a couple of little runs at us, but I think that our depth wore them down.”
Bryan Station (15-1, 2-0) will have to face both Douglass and Henry Clay again before the regular season is done and the Defenders have yet to begin their home-and-home series with their other two district rivals, Sayre and Scott County. Bryan Station will host Douglass on Jan. 26 and will go to Henry Clay on Feb. 9.
For now, there’s a little time to enjoy this win and the biggest home crowd any of these Defenders have seen.
“It was crazy playing in front of that crowd. There was a lot of energy and yelling from both sides, both student sections. It was fun, though,” Bryan Station sophomore Taeshawn Adams said. “Games like this, everybody on our team is ready for them. We can all play in front of a crowd like this and play team ball.”
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Bryan Station girls hold off Blue Devils rally
Two clutch Akiyah Wade free throws with eight seconds left in the game helped Bryan Station hold off a late charge by visiting Henry Clay for a 57-56 win in the opening game of the girls-boys 42nd District doubleheader on Friday.
“My heart was jumping out my chest,” confessed Wade, who drove down the left baseline and got fouled on her shot attempt to set up her key moment at the free-throw line. “I was so nervous, but I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I have four other players, my bench, my coach, our supporters out there — they are with me. Even if I miss, they’re with me. So, I felt confident.”
Henry Clay’s last-gasp shot for the win missed as time expired.
“It was starting to get iffy,” Wade said. “That fourth quarter, we felt like we had to go stronger and push, because after letting them go on their run, we had to get ours back.”
Just a few seconds before Wade’s free throws, Henry Clay’s Alli Stone cornered a Bryan Station player on the Blue Devils’ full-court press and stripped the ball away. Stone’s layup gave Henry Clay a 56-55 lead and capped a rally from 11 points down late in the third quarter.
Henry Clay (11-5, 3-2) forced seven turnovers in the fourth quarter and converted them into 13 points to climb back into the game after trailing by double digits for most of the third quarter.
Albertine “AB” Cyuzuzo and Chloe Do each hit fourth-quarter 3-pointers to help slow Henry Clay’s momentum. Do’s make with two minutes left was her only score of the game. Cyzuzo finished with a game-high 22 points while Wade and Kailyn Gentry added 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Timarri Miller led Henry Clay with 16 points. Stone added 12.
Bryan Station (11-7, 4-1) will get a rematch with Henry Clay on Feb. 9.
