‘We can close out games.’ No. 2 Lexington Catholic stops Douglass with clutch plays late.
For a while Wednesday night, it looked like No. 2 Lexington Catholic would rout Frederick Douglass in the rematch of last season’s boys 11th Region Tournament championship.
But the would-be blowout tightened in the fourth quarter as Douglass’ Armelo Boone and LexCath’s John Reinhart traded four consecutive 3-pointers down the stretch.
“Those are two great shooters going at it,” LexCath’s Tyler Doyle said of the sequence that began with 4:22 left in the game. Reinhart matched each of Boone’s makes to help the Knights keep a five-point edge during that minute span. “It was big, and it was fun to watch.”
At one point, Douglass trailed 16-2 in an abysmal first quarter, but the Broncos cut Lexington Catholic’s lead to two points three times over the final five minutes.
Despite the late rally, the visiting Knights prevailed 62-56 in this battle of crosstown powerhouses.
“Playing tough games down the stretch is what you want to do,” Lexington Catholic coach Brandon Salsman said. “You know, we played them in the beginning of the season last year when their football players had just come back, and so we knew putting them at this part of the season would be a lot tougher for us. And that’s what it was.”
Doyle, a senior point guard signed with Bellarmine, hit a short jumper in the lane to give the Knights a 56-52 lead with 1:47 to play. After a Douglass miss, Rowen Willams drove to the basket from the right wing and put in a reverse layup that made use of the rim to help him avoid getting his shot blocked by athletic Douglass guard Aveion Chenault. That pushed Lexington Catholic’s lead to 58-52 with 1:03 to go.
“We’ve got nine seniors, so it shows our experience,” Doyle said of the win. “We’ve played together for a while now and it just showed we can close out games.”
Doyle led Lexington Catholic with 21 points. Reinhart scored 20 that included six 3-pointers and Williams added 10 points. Boone and DeMarcus Surratt led Douglass with 21 and 11 points, respectively.
“The second, third and fourth quarters, we played really well. We played Douglass ball,” Broncos coach Stephon Harris said. “We just dug ourselves a hole in that first quarter.”
Unfortunately, as Douglass battled for the ball in the game’s closing seconds, Boone committed a hard foul against a Lexington Catholic rebounder that was deemed a “flagrant 1.” They fell awkwardly to the floor in the incident and some shoving among a few players from both teams ensued. Only Boone was ejected from the game after a long discussion by the officials.
Boone’s ejection also comes with an automatic two-game suspension. Since Douglass has only one regular season game remaining, Boone could miss the win-or-go-home 42nd District Tournament semifinals game against host Henry Clay later this month if the suspension is upheld.
The Broncos (17-10) are the defending district and region champions and ranked No. 5 in the Herald-Leader preseason poll, but they’ve struggled at times this year due in part to a roster that has been beset by illness and injury.
Douglass’ vast potential showed in a convincing 79-69 win over No. 12 Harlan County on Feb. 3. But a three-game losing streak followed as Boone, their leading scorer, sat out a week to recover from a scheduled wisdom tooth extraction. He returned Tuesday and helped lead Douglass to a 64-57 win over rival Henry Clay.
Now, Douglass could face a must-win game without Boone to keep its postseason hopes alive.
“I think they’ll handle it well,” Harris said. “We played without him last week and though the record shows we were unsuccessful in the win column … I’m confident that we can win without him. … We’ve got other guys and the other guys just have to step up.”
Lexington Catholic (25-2) had an impressive 66-56 win over No. 3 Trinity in Louisville this month and captured its second straight Kentucky 2A Championship crown on Jan. 15 in a tournament in which it knocked off both No. 10 Boyd County and No. 15 DeSales. The Knights’ only losses this year have come to No. 1 Great Crossing and No. 6 Lyon County.
Doyle appreciates what his team has accomplished, but knows hard work lies ahead.
“Being No. 2 in the state isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Doyle said. “We’ve still got to win districts and the region. A game like this is good for us going down (the stretch).”
This story was originally published February 15, 2024 at 9:29 AM.
