Kentucky and Indiana All-Stars exchange sweeps in annual high school basketball series
This year’s annual high school basketball series between the Kentucky All-Stars and Indiana All-Stars ended in a split on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, with each team holding serve in their home state.
On Friday night at the Sportscenter in Owensboro, the Kentucky girls registered a 72-62 win over Indiana, while the Kentucky boys followed suit with a 94-90 triumph.
On Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the Indiana girls responded with a 71-67 win, while the Indiana boys cruised to a 95-74 result after jumping out to a 17-0 lead to start the game.
While a notable storyline in the lead-up to this year’s games was the absences of notable players — including Kentucky Mr. Basketball and incoming Kentucky Wildcat Reed Sheppard, Indiana’s Xavier Booker (a Michigan State men’s basketball signee) and Indiana’s Joey Hart (a Kentucky basketball recruiting target) — the weekend series still delivered memorable performances from some of the best boys’ and girls’ players in both states.
Kentucky begins all-star series with sweep
Friday was a hectic day for Haven Ford.
The 2023 Kentucky Miss Basketball, Ford played both basketball and softball for Rowan County High School, and she was in action in both sports that day.
After playing in Rowan County’s 4-1 state softball tournament semifinal loss to Ballard at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington, Ford hit the road to Owensboro to take part in the Kentucky-Indiana game. And she made her mark.
A Murray State signee, Ford recorded 18 points, 12 rebounds and five steals in the win for Kentucky.
In the boys’ contest, Kentucky jumped out to significant early leads of 14-0 and 32-14, but it still had to fight for the win late.
With just seven minutes left, Kentucky owned a 77-58 lead before a 20-0 run by Indiana vaulted the Hoosiers into a shocking lead.
But some late baskets from Teagan Moore (a Western Kentucky signee from Owen County High School who scored 31 points) and Marcus Eaves (who will be playing a post-grad season in Florida after spending his senior year at Madisonville) restored Kentucky’s lead for good in the win.
Other notable performances for Kentucky included 14 points from Kenyon Goodin (a Collins High School standout who is signed to play at Bellarmine) and a nine-point, 16-rebound effort from Reece Potter, the former Lexington Catholic star who will be playing college basketball at Miami (Ohio).
Indiana gets a sweep of its own
Both the Indiana boys and girls protected home court Saturday night in Indianapolis to secure a split in this year’s rivalry series.
In the girls’ contest, Indiana Miss Basketball Laila Hull (a North Carolina signee) came up clutch with 22 points and 14 rebounds, including the game’s winning points with just 11 seconds left.
Kentucky’s leading performer was JaKayla Thompson, a Manual High School product and future Boston College women’s basketball player who had 20 points and nine rebounds.
In the boys’ contest, Indiana raced out to a 17-0 lead and never looked back.
Despite Kentucky trimming that deficit to just four points, and entering halftime only down six, the game was put firmly out of reach thanks to the exploits of Indiana Mr. Basketball Markus Burton.
Burton scored 26 points in Saturday’s win just one day after scoring 33 points in Friday’s game. He has signed to play at Notre Dame.
In a losing effort, Kentucky was led in scoring by Jerone Morton (a state champion at Clark County who signed to play at Morehead State) with 13 points.
Indiana remains all-time series leader
With this year’s split on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, Indiana preserved its all-time lead over Kentucky in the historic basketball series.
Indiana leads the boys’ series 103-45, although its seven-game winning streak in the series was snapped on Friday.
Indiana now leads the girls’ series 53-41. The two girls’ teams have each won once every year since 2017, although the 2020 series didn’t occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
