Great Crossing shakes off first half troubles to rally past Danville Christian
Great Crossing, perhaps one of the most unlikely defending champions to ever return to Rupp Arena for a state tournament, shook off a slow start and shored up its defense to rally for a 57-47 win over Danville Christian Wednesday in the first round of the UK HealthCare Boys’ Basketball Sweet 16.
The Warhawks got outscored 20-10 in the paint in the first half to a DCA team with 6-foot-10 Leek Ateny. But Ateny only accounted for a couple of 12-foot jump shots in the Warriors’ 22-18 halftime lead.
Instead, it was DCA’s Graham Domidion and Ben Mikels who torched Great Crossing’s defense for eight points apiece over the first two quarters. Domidion also dealt five assists.
“I wasn’t surprised with the first half, because yesterday was our worst practice in about two months,” Great Crossing coach Steve Page said.
The Warhawks, despite being the defending state champion, might be the most surprising team in Lexington this week given that its entire starting five graduated or left town after the fledgling school’s first Boys’ Sweet 16 title. Great Crossing emerged from an 11th Region Tournament that had three Kentucky Media Elite 16 Teams. It was not among them.
“We were a surprise team probably to the outside world,” Page said. “But once we saw the draw for the 11th Region, we had a lot of believers in our locker room.”
The first 16 minutes back in Rupp, however, looked more like the Great Crossing team that stumbled through parts of the regular season instead of the giant-killers they became.
“At halftime, I told them we were playing the ‘first-two-months Great Crossing,’” Page said. “We weren’t playing very good defense, and we were allowing them to dictate everything we did. And if we didn’t change that, you know, we would not be playing on Friday.”
An Ateny jumper put DCA up 26-21 with 4:50 to go in the third quarter. Great Crossing’s new focus on defense soon yielded a rally.
Over the next eight minutes, Great Crossing went on a 20-5 run that included a steal and layup by sophomore standout Brady Orem that tied the game at 26-26 just past midway in the third.
“The halftime conversation was to really stop letting (Domidion) get downhill in the paint,” Orem said. “And he was talking to me. I lost my guy a couple of times playing in the back, and he told me I’ve got to lock in.”
In the fourth, an Orem 3-pointer started a 7-0 run capped by a Graham Swartz steal in front of the DCA bench. Swartz kicked it ahead and Colt Delimpo followed up Ateny’s shot block with an easy lay-in to put Great Crossing up 41-31 with 4:28 left. That prompted a Warriors timeout, but the damage was done.
Orem finished with 19 points, Swartz scored 12, Delimpo 10 and Travanti Cooper had nine despite a cold-shooting night from long-range. Ateny led DCA (23-8) with 18 points. Domidion and Mikels tapered off from their first-half production to finish with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Great Crossing (24-11) ultimately scored 27 points off 18 DCA turnovers, most of those in the second half.
“Great Crossing played a great basketball game,” DCA coach Shaun Busick said. “They were tough. They were physical and that bothered us a bit early on, but I’m proud of how our guys battled throughout the game.”
Great Crossing will face Grayson County at 1:30 p.m. in Friday’s quarterfinals.
This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 11:52 PM.
