‘For our community, it’s incredible.’ Tiny Lyon County roars to Boys’ Sweet 16 championship.

Every Kentucky boys high school basketball tournament means something.

But this year’s UK HealthCare Boys’ Sweet 16 had something extra — Lyon County against Harlan County — small, rural western Kentucky school versus mountain school.

And it had something more — Lyon’s Travis Perry, the newly crowned Mr. Basketball who’s been the state’s all-time leading scorer for more than a year, taking on Harlan County’s Trent Noah, one of eastern Kentucky’s best-ever players who scored an astounding 48 points a night earlier in an unbelievable comeback win.

But on the biggest stage with the most at stake, it was Perry and the Lyons who came away with the 67-58 victory in front of 13,568 fans in Rupp Arena on Saturday.

Perry scored 27 points, including five 3-pointers, to help secure Lyon County’s first team state championship in any sport, quite an accomplishment for a school with an enrollment at last count of only 293, less than a third of Harlan County’s student body.

Perry knew what it meant to his team.

“This is something that can never be taken away from you,” the University of Kentucky signee and Sweet 16 MVP said. “There’s a lot of things that can be voted on or they can say you don’t deserve it or whatever. This is something that can never be taken away from any of the 15 guys on the team or anybody involved. That’s the main thing.”

Led by Perry and fellow seniors Jack Reddick and Brady Shoulders, the Lyons were making their third straight Sweet 16 appearance as 2nd Region champions. The school had made state one other time in its history back in 1951.

The Lyons knew what the win meant for their community, too.

“We’ve had two difficult losses up here, and every time it’s, ‘You guys got it next year,’ and ‘We still love you,’” Perry said. “I’m just really happy we were able to get them one. I’m very happy we got it for us … but still, for our community, it’s incredible, and I’m so thrilled we got it for them.”

Lyons fans roared as Shoulders threw down a celebratory dunk just before the final horn. Shoulders scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds while also having to check Harlan County’s Noah much of the night.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do after tonight,” Shoulders joked about Lyon’s fans. “They’re really going to be bored tomorrow.”

For a while at least, Lyon County’s faithful can recount their team’s sensational performance in the state finals where it led by as many as 14 points in the first half and then found a will to win after Harlan County rallied to tie the game at 45-all by the end of three quarters.

“We all made big plays down the stretch,” Perry said. “We missed a lot of free throws in the third quarter, but we made them in the fourth quarter. We just did the little things to win.”

The Lyons opened the fourth with a 13-5 run sparked by Reddick’s fourth 3-pointer of the game. They followed with two steals and four points by Shoulders, four points by Perry and a dunk by Lukas Breedlove that sent the purple and gold clad fans into a frenzy. Reddick, a Florida Gulf Coast signee, finished with 16 points.

From there, Lyon (36-3) frustrated Harlan County with the same keep-away strategy it used in its semifinals win over Great Crossing earlier Saturday to seal the win.

“They put so much pressure on you when they do that,” Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “They’ve got so many kids who can handle and dribble and shoot and pass the ball. They’re just an unbelievable basketball team. We’ve got an unbelievable basketball team, too. And I think we proved that this week.”

Harlan County (34-5), the first 13th Region team to reach a state finals since Clay County in 1988, toppled defending state champion Warren Central on Thursday and stunned Campbell County with a rally from 16 down for an overtime win on Friday. In Saturday’s semifinals, they knocked off Louisville’s Evangel Christian to reach the finals.

Friday’s win included 48 points by Noah, the fourth-most in a Boys’ Sweet 16 game. The South Carolina signee’s total of 19 3-pointers broke the tournament record of Mason County’s Chris Lofton. Noah finished his career with 3,707 points, unofficially fifth all-time behind Perry’s 5,481.

Lyon County made slowing Noah down its primary objective, limiting him to 17 points. Maddox Huff led the Black Bears with 22.

“We had somebody spying him so if he touched the ball, he didn’t get clean looks,” Lyon County coach Ryan Perry said. “Trent’s such a great player you can’t take him away (completely).”

For Ryan Perry, the Lyon County coach and Travis Perry’s father, the state championship culminated an effort that began when his son and son’s friends were in second grade, pestering their families to play basketball seemingly every day for months and years on end.

“It’s not very often that people get to obtain dreams, and these guys had this as a dream way back a lot of years ago,” Coach Perry said. “They all sacrificed a lot stuff for it. … They played really hard for their coaches. They played really hard for the fans and really hard for each other. And that’s just a really good recipe for success.”

Final day wrap-up of 2024 Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament in Rupp Arena

‘No losers in this game.’ Harlan County and Lyon County remind all of Sweet 16’s promise.

Future Wildcat Travis Perry ‘bionic’ in Lyon County’s Sweet 16 win vs. Great Crossing

‘Maybe some couches will be burned tonight’: Trent Noah powers Harlan Co. to state finals

‘We have experience now.’ Great Crossing reflects on lessons learned in Sweet 16 loss.