University Heights Academy suffered another key injury and it was too much to overcome as Lyon County rallied from a 12-point first half deficit to oust the Blazers from the Region 2 All “A” Basketball Tournament semifinals Thursday night, 96-75, at Dawson Springs High School.
UHA looked strong early, but senior Elijah Walton fell hard on his hip and back on a layup attempt and was helped off the floor with 53 seconds to go in the first quarter. Walton had seven points and UHA led 23-11 at the time of the injury.
The Blazers led 25-15 after one quarter, but they were already without senior point guard Tre Bell, who was unable to play with a knee injury. And freshman guard Keshawn Moore is still a few weeks away from returning from a broken leg.
That left the offensive burden to junior Tylin George, who was up for the challenge. The 6-foot-3 guard scored 21 of his game-high 48 points in the first half and UHA limped into halftime with a 37-36 lead.
UHA coach Terry Hayes said after the game that Walton injured his hip and back and it appeared to be a serious injury. He also said he was proud of his team.
“I told them after the game I was just really happy with how we battled and kept battling,” Hayes said. “We just ran out of players. We can’t keep getting these injuries.”
The Lyons (7-4) played seven players and their depth began to wear down UHA in the third quarter. Led by the play of Bray Kirk, the Lyons opened up a 64-53 lead after three quarters. Kirk led Lyon with 32 points.
The fourth quarter saw more of the same as the Lyons’ Cooper Collins, Bray, Nolan Coffman and Johnson Herring hit three pointer after three pointer and pushed the lead to as much as 24 points in the fourth period.
George, who scored 27 of the team’s 38 second-half points, tried to keep the Blazers (3-9) close as he hit 13 of 14 free throws in the final two quarters and hit a pair of 3’s in the fourth quarter. But it just wasn’t enough as the Lyons moved on to the championship game.
Lyon will play either Dawson Springs or Caldwell County. The two teams were playing in the second semifinal late Thursday night.
Carson Collins and Coffman both had 15 points for Lyon and Cooper Collins added 14 and Isaac DeFew had 10.
UHA returns to action Monday night at Hopkins County Central.
Score by Quarters:
University Heights 25 12 16 22 – 75
Lyon County 15 21 28 32 – 96
Individual Scoring:
UHA (3-9) – Flynn 2, McAfee 5, Pollard 2, George 48, Luckey 6, Walton 7, Miles 3.
LCHS (7-4) – Lucas 3, Co. Collins 14, Kirk 32, Ca. Collins 15, Coffman 15, DeFew 10, Baker 4, Herring 3.
3-Point Goals: UHA – McAfee, George 5, Luckey; LCHS – Co. Collins 4, Kirk 4, Ca. Collins 2, Coffman 2, Herring.
Photo by Joe Wilson