No. 3 Douglass to face No. 5 Bryan Station for the fourth time with a title on the line
Lexington’s two best boys high school basketball teams go head-to-head for a fourth time Friday with the 42nd District Tournament championship and their postseason destiny at stake.
Frederick Douglass (23-3), ranked No. 3 in the state in the final media poll of the season, has beaten No. 5 Bryan Station (23-6) in all three of their regular season encounters. It has a holiday tournament trophy and the district’s top seed to show for it.
But the stakes will be higher when the two tip off at 7:45 p.m. Friday at Scott County High School’s Billy Hicks Gymnasium. The loser will have to go on the road in the first round of next week’s 11th Region Tournament and face the champion of either the 41st, 43rd or 44th districts. The 41st is home to No. 2 Great Crossing, the defending region champions. Win Friday, and you get to host one of the runners-up from those districts on Tuesday.
“We’re going to have to play better than we ever have against them,” said Bryan Station coach Champ Ligon of Douglass after his Defenders defeated Henry Clay 60-48 in Wednesday’s district semifinals. “We need to rebound. We need to win 50-50 balls. We need to win the turnover battle. … Turnovers against them lead to dunks.”
Douglass coach Murray Garvin knows defeating the same opponent four times in a season won’t be easy, especially when that foe has remained a top-five team despite those losses.
“With Bryan Station, I think we both know what each other are going to try to do. It’s just about who will get the stop,” Garvin said. “When you play them, the possession begins when the shot goes up. … They are all over the offensive glass and you have to find a way to get a rebound against them.”
Frederick Douglass is the five-time defending district champion.
In the girls finals, Frederick Douglass, ranked No. 12 in the state, will face Henry Clay at 6 p.m. Friday also at Scott County.
Here’s how the 42nd District boys and girls tournaments played out this week leading to the finals.
Wednesday’s semifinals
Boys: No. 5 Bryan Station 60, Henry Clay 48 — Senior guard Justin Richmond exploded for 19 points, 13 above his average and including five second half 3-pointers, to help the Defenders pull away and earn their second straight district finals berth.
“It’s just win or go home, you know. I wanted to play hard not only for myself, but for my team and coaches to just keep the season alive,” said Richmond, whose team trailed 22-19 at halftime after leading for most of the first two quarters.
Bryan Station’s Ligon wouldn’t say exactly what he told his team in the locker room, but he reminded them of the letdown they had last Friday against Woodford County, an embarrassing 56-34 loss on senior night at home.
“We talk about the first four minutes of the second half. You’ve got to win that,” Ligon said. “Last time out against Woodford, we definitely didn’t win that. … If you don’t come out and play those first four minutes, it’s over.
“Thankfully, they came out with a chip on their shoulder and we made some plays.”
Bryan Station began the third quarter with a 6-0 run started by a Taeshawn Adams’ putback. Amari Owens got a steal and a layup on the next play and Bryan Station led 23-22 with less than a minute gone by. Adams finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, six of those on the offensive glass.
The Defenders never trailed again. Brunley Fon’s dunk with 5:29 to play in the third quarter capped a 13-4 run that put Bryan Station up 31-26.
Then, Richmond got hot. Richmond made five 3-pointers over the next quarter and a half. The final two came on back-to-back plays to give Bryan Station its biggest lead at 56-43 with 3:39 to play in the game.
Even though Owens, the Defenders’ leading scorer, struggled from the field with 10 points, he dished out seven assists, including two to Richmond in transition on those final 3-pointers
“When he’s not in attack mode, he’s keeping his head up, looking for everybody,” Richmond said. “He has really good vision. He can find anybody that’s open on the court.
Henry Clay (20-8), one of three teams to have beaten No. 3 Douglass this season, was led by AJ Dixon with 13 points and Hassan Bush with 12.
Girls: Henry Clay 57, Scott County 52 — Senior guard Ariyana Sutton made the 3-pointer that helped the Blue Devils (10-17) retake the lead for good just over midway through the fourth quarter. But after she fouled out moments later, her teammates helped seal the victory
Henry Clay held Scott County (10-14) to one point over the last three minutes, helping overcome a whopping 26 turnovers in a game with 14 lead changes and seven ties.
Sutton’s only 3-pointer of the game put Henry Clay up for good, 52-51 with 3:29 to play. She made a layup moments later to bump the cushion to 54-51 but committed her fifth foul on the next play.
“We pulled out by effort — not throughout the entire game — but at the end of the game,” Henry Clay coach Ashley Garrard said. “The bench, I told them, ‘We’ve got to play for each other,’ and we had to go deep. When Ariana (Sutton) fouls out, it was like “Are you going to fold? Or are you going to react to the adversity. … It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done.”
Sutton led four Blue Devils in double figures with 14 points. Brinley Dumphord and Jayden Jeffers each added 13 and Charlianne Robinson scored 10. Jeffers grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds and made some clutch free throws late to extend the lead.
Nmya Summers and Maya Custard led Scott County with 21 and 12 points, respectively.
Tuesday’s semifinals
Boys: No. 3 Frederick Douglass 77, Sayre 56 — The Broncos (23-3) deployed a smothering defense that held the Spartans to just eight points in the first quarter and six points in the second and left the outcome never in doubt.
Logan Busson scored 15 points, DeMarcus Surratt, 12, and Dakari Talbert had 11 off the bench for top-seeded Douglass. In all, 13 different Broncos scored while their defense held Sayre to 31% shooting.
Douglass built its lead to 30 points in the third quarter when a Surratt 3-pointer made it 44-14 just under two minutes into the second half.
In Monday’s first round, Sayre (17-12), this year’s 11th Region All “A” Classic champs, routed tournament host Scott County 83-48. Tuesday, Brock Coffman led the Spartans with 21 points. Chase Parker added 15.
Girls: No. 12 Frederick Douglass 64, Sayre 26 — Jaelee Knowles led three players in double figures with 17 points and the top-seeded Broncos (21-7) pulled away to a big lead early.
The game marked the second for Douglass without senior leader Kate Baker, a Transylvania commit and one of the Broncos’ leading scorers. Baker suffered a season-ending knee injury in their game against Cooper on Feb. 18.
Douglass got 14 points from eighth-grader Tamia Waide, 13 points from senior Reagan Gregonis and 10 rebounds from sophomore Peighton Okorley.
Sayre (18-10) opted out of playing a district schedule this season, but knocked off Bryan Station 54-48 in Monday’s first round to advance to the semis as the bottom seed. Katherine Monohan led the Spartans with 11 points against Douglass.
Friday’s 42nd District championships
At Scott County High School’s Billy Hicks Gymnasium, Georgetown
Girls finals: No. 12 Frederick Douglass vs. Henry Clay, 6 p.m.
Boys finals: No. 3 Frederick Douglass vs. No. 5 Bryan Station, 7:45 p.m.
Live stream: Glicod.com.
