Mr. Basketball hopeful Amari Owens stuffs box score in Bryan Station win

With only two seconds gone from the clock, Bryan Station led Scott County 2-0.

The Defenders’ Kolako Roberts won the jump ball Friday night at Memorial Coliseum and tipped it to Amari Owens, who in a blink thrust it to Torrence Sanford, blitzing undefended toward the basket for an easy layup.

It was just how the Bryan Station drew it up.

“We have a tip play cause over the last two, three years we’ve usually had the height advantage,” Station head coach Champ Ligon said. “Teams just don’t catch on, but part of it’s our own fault ‘cause we only run it right about half the time. So I guess that kind of keeps it under the radar.”

Bryan Station started and finished strong Friday night, and for its effort earned a 58-40 win in high school basketball’s return to Memorial Coliseum.

The Defenders jumped out to a 13-0 lead, keeping Scott County (10-7) without a point until Parker Sanders hit a 3-pointer with 3:04 left in the first quarter. Sanders, a sophomore who averages 6.6 points per game, scored Scott County’s first 14 points but was held scoreless for the remainder of the game following a 3-pointer that trimmed Station’s lead to 23-14 with 3:31 left in the second quarter.

Bryan Station (14-5) held him to just three shot attempts after his final make.

“If one gets going then another could get going,” Owens said. “So we like to shut that down early.”

Owens, a senior who’s headed to Eastern Kentucky, looked every bit like a Mr. Basketball contender while leading his team to a third 42nd District victory. He scored 29 on 11-of-19 shooting, grabbed five rebounds, dealt four assists and came away with three steals. His only blemishes from the box score: three turnovers and a 5 for 8 mark at the free-throw line.

“He’s getting better every day,” Ligon said. “The thing that’s really made a difference for him this year is that it’s the first time he’s really been put into a position to lead, and he’s stepped up.”

Taeshawn Adams, a fellow senior and Owens’ longtime running mate, had 11 points, six rebounds and a block. Roberts and Sanford scored six apiece; the former had three blocks.

Sanders was 5 for 10 from the floor for Scott County. Nine other Cardinals combined to shoot 9 for 37 (24.3%).

“We always try to put a single-digit quarter on a team, ‘cause we feel like if we can do that and not have one of our own, that goes a long way to getting a win in the end,” Ligon said. Station accomplished that twice, outpacing the Cardinals 19-9 in the first frame and 14-8 over the final eight minutes.

The Defenders won their third straight following a 63-60 loss Jan. 13 at Frederick Douglass, a fellow 42nd District and 11th Region contender. That game was settled in overtime.

The two are scheduled to square off again next Friday at Bryan Station. Weather permitting, the Defenders will play at Sayre on Tuesday.

Sayre girls rally in opener

With a green roster anticipated, Sayre’s girls basketball team elected to take a year off from playing a district schedule ahead of last season. That meant automatically signing up for the fifth seed in last year’s 42nd District tournament.

The Spartans got the better of Bryan Station in that first-round showdown and did so again Friday night, this time on a bigger floor. Sayre came from behind for a 44-38 victory in the Memorial twin bill.

Freshman Adler Jones hit seven 3-pointers to lead the Spartans (9-8) with 21 points. Seventh grader Karter Scott chipped in 15 to help Sayre win its first regular-season district game after an 0-4 start.

“It just makes all of us feel more confident in ourselves and how we can play,” Jones said.

Jones (10.6 ppg) and Scott (16.9) are the only Spartans averaging double-digit points this season, though senior Kathryn Kinder isn’t too far off that pace (9.3). Kinder is the only senior among the six Sayre players who logged significant minutes Friday.

One of the others, junior Ella Jurgenson, scored her only two points at the free-throw line but spent much of the night working to contain Station star Akiyah Wade on the other end. Wade, a senior, led the Defenders (10-8) with 18 points.

“We had her guarding the ball most of the evening because Wade is a tremendous point guard,” Sayre head coach Eric Kinder said. “We had one kid we thought could kind of stick with her, and I thought she did a fantastic job of slowing her down today.”

Sayre led for most of the first quarter before Bryan Station rallied and eventually built a nine-point lead late in the first half. The Spartans pulled to within 23-18 at the break and extended their run into the third quarter, during which they briefly retook the lead. Wade hit a jumper to put Station back ahead through three quarters, but Sayre opened the last one on a 5-0 run and kept the lead for good.

Bryan Station lost its fourth straight game and fell to 1-3 in 42nd District play.

This story was originally published January 24, 2026 at 7:57 AM.