These college basketball recruits had a Sweet 16 state tournament to remember in Rupp Arena
Last week’s Boys’ Sweet 16 state basketball tournament will go down as one of the best editions of a signature Kentucky sporting event.
Lyon County, a rural western Kentucky school with an enrollment of less than 300 students, won the title for its first team state championship in any sport: The Lyons — led by UK basketball signee Travis Perry and several other future NCAA Division I players — topped Harlan County in Saturday night’s championship game.
But it wasn’t just the Lyons that boasted future college basketball talent in Rupp Arena over the course of the 15-game event.
From Harlan County’s Trent Noah, a dazzling scorer who is signed to play at South Carolina, to Great Crossing’s Malachi Moreno, one of the top recruits in the nation in the 2025 class, plenty of promising basketball talent was on display among Kentucky’s best high school boys’ teams.
Here’s a look at how some of the top college basketball recruits in the Sweet 16 field performed during the tournament.
Maddox Huff
A 6-foot-2 junior guard from 13th Region champion Harlan County, Huff was part of a storybook run for the Black Bears that saw the mountain school advance all the way to the state championship game.
Huff — who entered the tournament averaging 17.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game this season — had already reported Division I scholarship offers from Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee State. After what he did last week at Rupp Arena, Huff can probably expect a few more college coaches to take interest.
In an opening-round win over defending state champion Warren Central (which doubled as Harlan County’s first-ever state tournament win), Huff had 15 points and went 3-for-6 on 3-pointers. In a quarterfinal win in overtime over Campbell County, Huff provided the Black Bears with 22 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing out on a double-double.
Huff again nearly hit the double-double mark in Harlan County’s semifinal win over Evangel Christian: Huff had 15 points and nine rebounds in that contest.
And with talented teammate Trent Noah being the main focus of Lyon County’s defense in the state championship game, Huff led his team with 22 points, including 6-for-11 shooting from behind the 3-point line.
Across four games at the Sweet 16, Huff scored 74 points.
Malachi Moreno
Moreno, a 7-foot-1 junior frontcourt star from 11th Region champion Great Crossing, had a Sweet 16 to remember as his Warhawks made their first-ever appearance at the state tournament.
Ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 34 overall recruit in the 2025 class, Moreno was the star of Great Crossing’s run to the state semifinals.
In an opening-round win over Spencer County, Moreno scored 24 points on 10-for-16 shooting from the field while inhaling 19 rebounds. In a quarterfinal win over Magoffin County, Moreno again had elite production: 16 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in a commanding win.
As Great Crossing’s historic season came to an end in the state semifinals against eventual champion Lyon County, Moreno again had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Moreno scored 52 points and grabbed 48 rebounds across three games at Rupp Arena.
Now, a highly anticipated summer on the recruiting front begins for Moreno, who took an official visit to Iowa in October and was a frequent presence at UK games this season.
Trent Noah
A 6-6 senior guard from 13th Region champion Harlan County, perhaps no player in the Sweet 16 field gained more notoriety for his on-court play last week than Noah.
The South Carolina signee had a scoring week for the ages as Harlan County reached the state championship game: Noah had 35 points in an opening-round win over defending champion Warren Central, 48 points in an overtime quarterfinal win over Campbell County, 29 points in a semifinal win over Evangel Christian, and 17 more points in the state championship game against Lyon County, during which he was the focus of the Lyons’ defense.
One of eastern Kentucky’s best-ever players, the 48 points Noah scored against Campbell County in a dramatic comeback win represent the fourth-most points ever scored in a Boys’ Sweet 16 game.
Over the course of four games at Rupp Arena, Noah made 19 3-pointers. That’s a tournament record, breaking the previous mark set by Mason County’s Chris Lofton.
Noah ends his high school basketball career as one of the most prolific scorers in Kentucky history: His 3,707 career points are unofficially fifth all-time.
Travis Perry
Speaking of prolific high school basketball scorers, nobody has reached the scoring heights that Perry, a 6-2 senior guard from 2nd Region and now state champion Lyon County, has.
Thanks to a varsity career that stretches back to his seventh grade year, Perry became the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky boys’ high school basketball history last year at the Sweet 16. This year, he used a number of high-scoring games to help win the state championship for the Lyons.
In each of the four games he played at the Sweet 16, Perry had at least 16 points and four assists.
Perry went for 16 points and five assists in an opening round win over Ashland Blazer, 21 points and five assists in a quarterfinal win over Adair County, 24 points and four assists in a semifinal win over Great Crossing and a game-high 27 points and five assists in the championship win over Harlan County.
Perry, who is signed to play college basketball at Kentucky, now holds a commanding edge atop the all-time boys’ high school basketball scoring leaderboard with 5,481 career points.
He was also recently named Kentucky Mr. Basketball and will become the second straight winner of that award to play at UK, following North Laurel’s Reed Sheppard.
Perry has been Kentucky’s Gatorade Player of the Year for boys’ high school basketball in each of the last two years.
Jack Reddick
Obviously, Perry didn’t lead Lyon County to the state championship alone. One of the biggest contributions toward Lyon County’s state championship came from Reddick, a 6-3 senior guard who is committed to play college basketball at Florida Gulf Coast.
Reddick had four points and four assists in the opening-round win over Ashland Blazer, nine points and seven assists in the quarterfinal win over Adair County, 11 points and three assists in the semifinal win over Great Crossing and 16 points and four assists in the state title game win over Great Crossing.
He went 4-for-8 on 3-pointers in the state championship game.
Along with Perry and fellow Lyon County senior Brady Shoulders, Reddick was part of the Lyons’ three-man core that helped lead the school to three consecutive Sweet 16 appearances.
Brady Shoulders
It was Shoulders — a 6-6 senior guard — who put the punctuation mark on Lyon County’s state title game win with an emphatic two-handed dunk as time expired.
He was a critically important piece to Lyon County’s state title run across all four games at Rupp Arena: Shoulders led the Lyons with 17 points in the opening-round win over Ashland Blazer, then had an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double in the quarterfinal win over Adair County.
Against Great Crossing in the state semifinals Shoulders had 13 points and four steals. Against Harlan County with a state championship on the line Shoulders gave the Lyons 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
With his high school career complete, Shoulders is now in a position to sort out his college basketball future.
Shoulders was previously signed to play basketball at Tennessee-Martin, but just two days before the Sweet 16 began, Shoulders announced he was decommitting from UT-Martin. This decision came after UT-Martin coach Ryan Ridder resigned to accept the head coaching job at Mercer.
Since Shoulders made that announcement, he has received scholarship offers from both Florida Gulf Coast (where Lyon County teammate Jack Reddick will be playing college ball) and Mercer (the new head coaching stop for Ridder).
‘No losers in this game.’ Harlan County and Lyon County remind all of Sweet 16’s promise.
‘For our community, it’s incredible.’ Tiny Lyon County roars to Boys’ Sweet 16 championship.
‘He became a legend tonight.’ Harlan County’s Trent Noah scores 48 in stunning comeback.
‘There’s no way it’s going to end like this.’ Travis Perry sparks Lyon County comeback.
