42nd District Tournament: Henry Clay sweeps titles

The third time was the charm for the No. 3 Henry Clay boys high school basketball team, as it came into Scott County and picked up an 85-77 win over the No. 14 Cardinals in the 42^nd District Tournament finals on Thursday.

Isaiah “Pun” Tisdale scored 33 points on an off-shooting night – 10-for-24 – while Lee Ridgeway scored 31 points hitting 11 of 17 shots, including 5 of 8 from three-point distance. Jordan Houston also finished in double figures with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Henry Clay dropped its first meeting with the Cards this season by 11 at home then lost on the road by five earlier this month. The Blue Devils came up with the win that mattered most, though, which gave them their third straight district title and a more favorable position when the 11^th Region pairings are drawn this Saturday.

Coach Daniel Brown said the performances by Tisdale and Ridgeway were the kind he expects from his top players when this time of year rolls around.

“They had it going and looked for each other,” Brown said. “It was obviously huge. It took the pressure off everybody else.”

That ease of tension revealed itself in the fourth quarter, into which Henry Clay took a 15-point advantage. Tisdale had only four points and Ridgeway didn’t score in the period, leaving room for others to find their way into the scoring column. Houston came away with six of his points there.

The Blue Devils jumped out to an 11-5 lead and maintained a double-digit edge for much of the second quarter before Scott County cut it to 33-31 with 3:50 left in the second quarter.

From there Henry Clay doubled up the Cards 18-9 to lead 51-40 at halftime. Tisdale, a Mr. Basketball candidate, scored nine in the final two minutes of the first half, the last two coming on a buzzer-beating putback.　

All-tournament team—DeAndre Dishman, Bryan Station; Jake Duby, Sayre; Jordan Jones, Henry Clay; Bryce Long, Scott Co.; Michael Moreno, Scott Co.; Leander Ridgeway, Henry Clay; Isaiah Tisdale, Henry Clay

Henry Clay girls win third straight, too

Henry Clay’s girls continued to assert their authority over Bryan Station, defeating the Defenders 79-72 to claim their third straight 42^nd District Tournament title Thursday night at Scott County.

It was the Blue Devils’ eighth straight win and third this season over Bryan Station, the last team to upend Henry Clay in this tournament. T’laya Lyvers scored 34 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, both game highs by a sizable margin.

She made the all-tournament team along with teammates Jordyn Jackson and Kiya Thompson. Lyvers’ final points came on a successful and-one completion to quell a late Bryan Station run that got the Defenders to within 73-67 with a little more than minute to play.

“I didn’t want them to come back in the game so I just decided to step up when we needed it,” Lyvers said.

Dealing with Station’s perimeter speed is difficult, Lyvers said, but Henry Clay has had success this season making life hard when the Defenders’ slew of guards come into the paint. Lyvers spelled it out succinctly.

“They can score when they want but we just gotta stop ’em,” Lyvers said. “And we stopped ’em tonight.”

Thompson, a freshman, played beyond her years Thursday. She scored 16 points, including seven in the fourth quarter to help keep Henry Clay ahead by double digits for most of the period. Jackson had eight points and seven rebounds, and set the tone early as the Blue Devils fed the interior.

That was important as they faced off against what Coach Eric Sanford called, collectively, “the best guards in the region” for a third time. Jlyn Martin led Bryan Station with 20 points, including a 6-for-8 mark from beyond the arc.

Sanford has seen growth from a team that’s taken its share of punches against some of the top-ranked teams in the state, most recently a 35-point drubbing at No. 1 Elizabethtown to end the regular season.

“We wanted a measuring stick to see how we would be,” Sanford said of that contest at E-town. “ … We came back, went to the drawing board and knew what we had going into district.”

One thing Sanford knows he can count on night in and night out is the play of Lyvers, whom he feels was slighted for 11^th Region Player of the Year honors earlier this month. She’s averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds against regional foes this year.

“What she does for this team, she’s by far, in my opinion, the best player in this region,”

All-tournament team—Hannah Brady, Sayre; Ezzy Ighodaro, Bryan Station; Jordyn Jackson, Henry Clay; T’laya Lyvers, Henry Clay; Jlyn Martin, Bryan Station; Peyton Riddle, Scott Co.; Kiya Thompson, Henry Clay

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 11:08 PM with the headline "42nd District Tournament: Henry Clay sweeps titles."