Lexington Catholic’s holiday tournament semis have star power
Monday night’s semifinals of the White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic at Lexington Catholic will feature four teams ranked in the Herald-Leader’s preseason top 25 and three no-doubt candidates for this season’s Mr. Basketball.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, the tournament host, No. 21 Lexington Catholic will face No. 20 Boyd County, which includes Youngstown State commit Jacob Spurlock, one of last season’s top scorers.
At 8 p.m., No. 6 North Laurel and Liberty commit Reece Davidson face No. 10 Daviess County, who has Jonathan Moss, a three-star point guard who recently decommitted from Chattanooga to explore other options. His offers include Arizona State, Western Kentucky and Marshall.
Both North Laurel (8-3) and Daviess County (9-3) reached last season’s Boys’ Sweet 16 as region champions but have stumbled in their early December games. They proved their mettle in Sunday’s Classic quarterfinals against stiff competition.
North Laurel rally stuns Bryan Station
The Jaguars overcame a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to take down No. 7 Bryan Station 55-52. Davidson’s drive to the basket with about a minute to go yielded foul shots to help North Laurel take its first lead since the first quarter, 51-50.
A defensive stop on the ensuing possession led to a fast-break Davidson dunk to put North Laurel up 53-50 with 22.6 seconds left. The Defenders, frustrated in the fourth quarter by the Jags’ collapsing zone defense, could not answer.
“Just because we’re down, … we’re like, ‘We’re still in it, no matter what,’” said Davidson, a 6-foot-7 senior forward who led the Jags with 22 points and 13 rebounds and went 8 for 8 at the free-throw line. “We’re going to keep fighting. We’ve got a really good group of guys that understands that.”
Despite a 76-foot 3-point buzzer-beating football toss into the basket by Cooper Elza to end the third quarter trailing 42-36, things looked bleak for North Laurel early in the fourth quarter, as Bryan Station’s defensive pressure yielded steals and easy baskets that helped the Defenders push their lead to 46-36 on an Amari Owens layup with 6:15 to play.
“Half of their points were off turnovers from us. We’re still learning how to deal with that pressure. We don’t see that a lot in the 13th Region. That’s why we come to these,” North Laurel coach Nate Valentine said. “But Kaiden Allen made some big plays for us, and Reece is a little bit like his cousin Reed (Shepherd). I didn’t feel like he played very well, and then you look at the stat sheet and he had 22 points and 13 rebounds.”
Allen hit a 3-pointer during the Jags’ 19-10 fourth quarter rally and finished with six points. Corey Dunagin scored 11 points and Elza finished with nine.
Bryan Station (5-4) was led by Taeshawn Adams’ 20 points and 13 apiece by Owens and Torrence Sanford. Adams scored the 1,000th point of his career during the contest. Owens, one of Lexington’s top all-time scorers, eclipsed 2,000 points earlier this month.
But the Defenders struggled to make shots and free throws down the stretch.
“We had some point-blank looks that didn’t go in. … We really didn’t shoot it very well. It’s hard to win when you’re not shooting very well,” Bryan Station coach Champ Ligon said. “But I think this team is just going to get better and better. You know, sometimes you have to fail before you succeed. We’re going toe-to-toe with really good teams, and I can see us getting better. It’s just a matter of time.”
Daviess County overtakes Caverna
Moss scored 24 points with four assists and made key plays late to help the Panthers pull out a 54-47 win over No. 11 Caverna.
Daviess County trailed at every quarter break until putting together an 18-9 fourth-quarter run highlighted by a pair of Moss drives to the basket in the late stages which each yielded 3-point plays. Moss went 12 for 12 from the free-throw line.
DeAaron Watkins chipped in 12 points that included two fourth-quarter dunks. Lemontae Ratcliff hit a key 3-pointer during the fourth quarter run for his only bucket of the game.
“Last year’s team, if we were in that same type of situation, we probably wouldn’t have come out on top,” Moss said. “This year’s team has a lot of grit and fight to us. So, I trust them a lot.”
Caverna (6-4) got 16 points apiece from Jaylin Craine and Tyson Martin but remains without 6-6 senior transfer Gavin Lightning as he awaits a ruling on his eligibility from the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. The former Bowling Green player and Caverna native returned home to play for the Colonels after two seasons at an out-of-state prep school.
Lexington Catholic springs a leak in its roof and its lead
Max Meagher made all nine of his field-goal attempts for 22 points to lead the Knights to a 68-65 win over a scrappy Lyon County team that nearly erased an 18-point third-quarter deficit.
The game was briefly delayed in the fourth quarter by a roof leak caused by the LexCath gym’s air conditioning unit, which got turned on because of the unusually warm December day. The leak delayed the start of the North Laurel-Bryan Station game by about 45 minutes.
The Lyons went on an 11-0 run in the second half to get back in the contest, getting 19 points from Nolan Coffman, 18 points from Bray Kirk and 11 points from Isaac Defew.
Lexington Catholic’s Ben Warren and Jacob Holland scored 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Boyd County overwhelms North Oldham
The Lions (6-3) built a 29-point third-quarter lead over H-L preseason No. 12 North Oldham and held on for a 75-64 victory.
Spurlock, a 6-2 senior guard who averaged 24 points per game for Boyd last season, led the Lions with 23 points and eight rebounds. Malachi Payne and Caleb Rimmer added 16 and 11 points, respectively.
North Oldham (7-3) got 15 points from Henry Howard and 13 points from Eli Green.
WGM Holiday Classic
At Lexington Catholic
Monday’s consolation games
Woodford County vs. McCracken County, noon
Collins vs. Taylor County, 1 p.m.
Marshall County vs. Great Crossing, 1:30 p.m.
West Jessamine vs. Paintsville, 2:30 p.m.
Bryan Station vs. Caverna, 3 p.m.
Lyon County vs. North Oldham, 4:30 p.m.
Monday’s semifinals
Boyd County at Lexington Catholic, 6:30 p.m.
North Laurel vs. Daviess County, 8 p.m.
Tuesday’s final
Championship game, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published December 29, 2025 at 9:39 AM.
