Danville Christian captures historic boys-girls basketball sweep at All ‘A’ Classic
One of Kentucky’s smallest high schools pulled off a feat no small school with a basketball program has accomplished in the decades-long history of the All “A” Classic as Danville Christian swept the boys and girls tournament championships Sunday at Owensboro Sportscenter.
DCA’s boys grabbed a 34-20 lead at halftime and then held off a furious rally by defending Boys’ Sweet 16 champion Lyon County to win 56-53.
Earlier, the DCA girls, featuring Louisville signee Grace Mbugua, defeated No. 9 Bethlehem 73-59 in the girls finals.
“Praise God that our boys and girls were able to come into this tournament and play the way they did,” DCA boys coach Shaun Busick said. “It’s an amazing feeling, just joy and happiness for our kids. I’m just so proud of them for their resiliency, their toughness and their togetherness.”
Bolstered by a foreign exchange program that has brought in a few tall students with a ton of basketball potential from Kenya and Sudan, the tiny private school with an enrollment of just 78 high schoolers at last year’s count developed quickly into a 12th Region powerhouse in both girls and boys hoops since fully joining the Kentucky High School Athletic Association in 2018. DCA’s girls team won the 12th Region Tournament and made the full-field KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 last season.
The All “A” Classic for the state’s smallest schools came into existence in the mid-1980s and became a statewide event for both boys and girls basketball in 1991. Three schools have had both their boys and girls teams reach the Classic finals in the same year but failed to sweep — Lexington Catholic three times, and Newport Central Catholic and Murray, each once.
Girls championship marred by injury
Unfortunately, the girls championship game began with an injury to Bethlehem’s Leah Macy, a Notre Dame signee who rates as one of the best players in the nation.
Bethlehem won the tip and Macy drove into the lane against Mbugua. She then slumped awkwardly to the floor after putting up a shot. Macy propped herself up, but remained on the court as trainers came to her.
Bethlehem coach Jason Clark declined to characterize the injury to the media after the game. Macy did not return to action and walked on crutches with her right knee wrapped to accept her all-tournament award afterward. She suffered an ACL sprain and bone bruise on the same court at the beginning of last season that sidelined her for her 10 games.
“She just went down,” said DCA coach Billy Inmon, whose star player Mbugua just returned from a knee injury two weeks ago. “The place was so quiet… . It tore everybody up. They called a timeout out and I had to call a timeout because Grace was just bawling and hurting for her. We wanted to win, but we didn’t want to win that way. … You just can’t make any rhyme or reason out of that stuff.”
When play resumed, DCA overwhelmed the Banshees, jumping to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter and a 46-21 lead by halftime. Bethlehem battled back in the second half and outscored DCA 38-27 down the stretch, but the margin was too big to overcome.
“You know, injuries happen. But I’m proud of my girls,” Bethlehem’s Clark told The Kentucky Standard’s Josh Claywell. “We adjusted on the fly, and those Danville Christian girls knew they were in a fight the rest of the game.”
Mbugua led DCA with 20 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks as the Warriors held Bethlehem to 30.4% from the field for the game. The Banshees made only six of 34 field goals in the first half. Tessa Miles led Bethlehem with 25 points. Loren Macy added 10.
Three other DCA players reached double figures — Amauri Blackford with 16 points, Alaya Quisenberry had 14 to go with seven assists, and Paisley Mez scored 13. Metz broke the girls All “A” Classic tournament record for made 3-pointers with 17, including seven against Crittenden County in the semifinals. Quisenberry set the tourney record for most assists with 33.
DCA improved its record to 15-5 and has won seven of eight games since Mbugua’s return. Inmon said they should get even better as the season moves forward.
“Grace and Alaya (DCA’s point guard) really started getting a little bit of chemistry together through the tournament and they really hadn’t had any before that,” Inmon said. “When they start clicking together, I think it’s going to be something.”
Stifling defense propels DCA boys
Danville Christian’s boys smothered its first two All “A” opponents defensively, allowing only 29 points each in wins against Walton-Verona and last week’s No. 7 team in the state, Hazard.
But Lyon County, who last season had high school basketball’s all-time leading scorer with Travis Perry, can still fill it up. The Lyons trimmed a 14-point deficit halftime to three to start the fourth quarter.
“They’re a very, very fine oiled machine, offensively,” Busick said. “They came out blistering us in the third quarter and it became a game. … They had a shot to send it to overtime.”
But DCA’s ability to wreak havoc with its defensive pressure at the top and 6-11 senior Laul Ayiei and 6-10 junior Leek Ateny at the rim allowed the Warriors to hang on for their first major piece of hardware in a KHSAA event. DCA has been the 12th Region representative at the statewide All “A” in three of its seven seasons of KHSAA competition.
Titus Boyd led the Warriors with 20 points, followed by Ateny with 13 and Cole Dadisman with 11. Ateny and Ayiel had 13 and 10 rebounds, respectively. DCA outscored Lyon 28-18 in the paint and made four of its five field goals down the stretch. Cooper Collins and Bray Kirk led the Lyons with 26 and 21 points, respectively.
Busick said his team’s defense is a credit to more than his near 7-footers.
“The ball pressure we put on is pretty good. We have really quick guards that are fierce,” Busick said. “They work hard and get a lot of deflections. But it does help to have that protection in the back row.”
Busick said Ayiei and Ateny have been undervalued by college recruiters to this point.
“Ayiei is as good a rim protector as there is in the state,” Busick said. Ayiel had three blocks Sunday. As for Ateny, he has “great skills, hits 3s, shoots 85-86% from the foul line and can put the ball on the floor.”
While grateful for the Classic title, DCA has designs on making it to Rupp Arena for the Boys’ Sweet 16, as well.
“Right now, this is the highlight of our season, and it’s a great highlight,” Busick said. “But we’d like to make some noise in the (other) state tournament.”
How the 11th Region’s teams fared
Both of the 11th Region’s Lexington representatives at the All “A” Classic, Sayre’s boys and Lexington Christian’s girls, lost their quarterfinal matchups on Friday in Owensboro.
This was the second straight trip to the All “A” for both and each made it a game further than they did last season.
Sayre lost to Owensboro Catholic 56-50 on Friday. The Spartans defeated Louisville Holy Cross 71-49 in Thursday’s first round. Bishop Brossart defeated LCA 74-46 after the Eagles knocked off Mayfield 51-21 in Wednesday’s first round.
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM.
