District roundup: How top seeds Douglass, Lexington Catholic and Dunbar won out
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- Douglass boys used an 18-0 second-half run and team defense to win 42nd.
- Lexington Catholic won in 2OT; Max Meagher led Knights with 20 points, 19 rebounds.
- Girls: Douglass and Dunbar routed their rivals in their respective 42nd and 43rd finals.
A season ago, Frederick Douglass blew a 14-point second half lead against Bryan Station and with it lost the boys 42nd District Tournament championship for the first time in six years.
Friday night in front of a capacity crowd in the Defenders’ home gym, the No. 7 Broncos never let up as an 18-0 second half run helped turn a respectable margin into a 66-36 rout.
“Defensively, the last three weeks has been incredible for our basketball team,” said Douglass coach Murray Garvin, who got his first district title after four seasons coaching in Lexington (two at Paul Laurence Dunbar and the last two at Douglass). “They’ve locked in on the scouting reports. They’ve followed game plans. It’s just an incredible, incredible display of team defense.”
Douglass’ victory completed a district title sweep by the respective top seeds of the boys and girls 42nd and 43rd district tournaments on Friday night. Lexington Catholic survived a double overtime thriller against Tates Creek in the boys 43rd finals. Frederick Douglass and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s girls teams both routed their finals opponents.
In the 42nd boys finals, Douglass (22-6) held the Kentucky Media Elite 16 poll No. 16 Defenders to 27.5 percent from the field and contained Bryan Station’s leading scorers Amari Owens and Taeshawn Adams to just 10 points apiece. Ethan Owens led Station with 12 points.
The defensive pressure Bryan Station (22-9) used to pummel Henry Clay two nights earlier proved less effective against Douglass.
“It was a great game until it wasn’t,” Bryan Station coach Champ Ligon said. “My guys played really hard. I think we fatigued. We were all-out pressing them, and I think we gave them some problems. Give them credit. In the second half, we wore down. I thought we’d wear them down.”
Garvin told his team at halftime, they needed to adjust to Station’s traps.
“Bryan Station cannot trap us like that. We’re too skilled,” he said. “The guys are trained well in handling traps and once we got accustomed to it, we ended up getting layups and dunks, and that’s what Bronco basketball is. … I didn’t see a 30-point win. I’m just glad to get out of here with a W.”
Douglass junior guard Dakari Talbert scored 10 of his 21 points in the third quarter to help spark the Broncos. He nailed a 3-pointer directly in front of the Bryan Station student section that seemed to foreshadow the rest of the game.
“It doesn’t matter whose night it is. We just want to win,” Talbert said. “Tonight it was my night, but it’s a team effort all around. We’ve got rebounders. We’ve got passers. We’ve got 3-point shooters. We’ve got everything.”
Thurman Wade chipped in 14 points, including a 3-pointer and dunk on back-to-back plays during the decisive 18-0 run. DeMarcus Surratt chipped in 12. Nate Coen’s six points included an eye-popping putback dunk in the first half. Tate Robinson’s six points include a 3-point dagger that put Douglass up 62-34 with 3:09 to play, capping the 18 unanswered points in 3:30 of game time.
Before the game, Bryan Station starter Torrence Sanford suffered a medical issue and had to be carried back to the locker room. The team labeled his condition stable, but no further details were disclosed. Sanford is Bryan Station’s third leading scorer and is a key defensive player and ball-hander.
Ligon acknowledged the loss of Sanford shocked his team at first, but he thought they responded well in the early going.
“But we’ve got to do a better job at the end,” he said. “We let them get some runouts they shouldn’t have gotten. Credit to them. They are playing at a very high level.”
Both the champions and runners-up in all four of the 11th Region’s districts advance to next week’s region tournament at Eastern Kentucky University’s Baptist Health Arena. The bracket draws were scheduled at 10 a.m. Saturday morning in Richmond and will be streamed live by Glicod.com on YouTube.
Lexington Catholic outlasts Tates Creek in boys 43rd finals
Lexington Catholic sophomore Everett Stuart scored seven of his 13 points in the second overtime as the Knights (21-8) claimed their fifth straight 43rd District crown with a 68-60 win.
The Commodores (16-14) had pushed Lexington Catholic to double overtime once already this season, but LexCath prevailed then as well.
On Friday, Tates Creek led 31-26 at half and 37-36 after three quarters in a game that featured eight ties and six lead changes.
Stuart hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to put LexCath up 50-37 with 1:08 left in regulation, but Tates Creek’s Brady Manning answered it with his own 3-pointer 11 seconds later to knot it back up.
LexCath outscored Tates Creek 16-8 in the second overtime to put the game away. Max Meagher led the Knights with 20 points and 19 rebounds. Hank Woodall and Ben Warren added 14 and 12 points, respectively. Tates Creek was led by Tom Haubenreich with 18 points. Stephen Franklin added 16 and Manning scored 12.
Douglass and Paul Laurence Dunbar roll in girls district finals
Frederick Douglass 63, Scott County 24: Douglass point guard Mikalee “MK” Bennett scored 21 points as she and teammate Jaelee Knowles each grabbed four of their team’s 10 steals against Scott County (11-19) as the No. 8 Broncos (21-7) claimed their fourth straight 42nd District title.
The Broncos’ defense allowed only eight points in the first quarter, seven in the second, five in the third and four in the fourth as they built a lead that hit the running-clock 35-point mercy-rule margin less than three minutes into the second half. Tamia Waide added 14 points. Knowles finished with six.
“We controlled the game today and limited our turnovers tonight,” said Douglass coach Daryl Moberly, who has led the Broncos to two 11th Region titles in the last three seasons and took them to the Girls’ Sweet 16 semifinals last year. “Our defense got us rolling today.”
Paul Laurence Dunbar 82, Lafayette 57: Eighth grader Kyah Curtsinger led four Bulldogs in double figures scoring with 27 points as Paul Laurence Dunbar (23-4) steadily piled onto its lead throughout the game for its first 43rd District championship since 2020.
Six different Dunbar players scored during the Bulldogs 27-15 third quarter that helped put the game away. Kaleigh Potts chipped in 19 points and had a team high seven assists. Layla Flynn scored 14 points and Alese Goree added 13.
Lafayette (21-10) got 15 points from E’Maria Owens, 14 from Skylar Davis, 11 from Anna Clay Denton and 10 from Addi Coms.
District tournament results in the 11th Region
THURSDAY’S FINALS
44th District Championships at EKU’s Baptist Health Arena
Boys: Madison Central 94, Model 43.
Girls: Madison Southern 70, Berea 17.
FRIDAY’S FINALS
41st District Championships at F.D. Wilkinson Gymnasium, Frankfort
Boys: Great Crossing 56, Franklin County 43.
Girls: Franklin County 44, Western Hills 43.
42nd District Championships at Bryan Station High School
Boys: Frederick Douglass 66, Bryan Station 36.
Girls: Frederick Douglass 63, Scott County 24.
43rd District Championships at Lafayette High School
Boys: Lexington Catholic 68, Tates Creek 60, 2OT.
Girls: Paul Laurence Dunbar 82, Lafayette 57.
Saturday’s Boys and Girls 11th Region Tournament Draws
What: The draw for positions in next week’s boys and girls 11th Region Tournaments for the champions and runners-up in their respective district tournaments.
When: 10 a.m. Saturday.
Where: Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond.
Draw show stream: Youtube.com/@GLICOD
Draw order: 42nd District, 43rd District, 44th District, 41st District.
This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 2:03 AM.
