Edmonson County 68, Lyon County 50

RICHMOND, Ky. — They were teammates briefly this summer, but Lyon County center Ramsey Walker had no clue that Edmonson County star Cody Rich would do anything like this.

Rich torched the Lyons for 31 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as Edmonson pasted Lyon 68-50 in Friday morning's opening round of the All A Classic state tournament at Eastern Kentucky University's McBrayer Arena.

"I knew he was a good player, but he didn't shoot the ball like that this summer," said Walker, who played with Rich on a team of Kentucky high school players in a tournament in Hawaii. "He's definitely gotten better in the last few months."

Rich, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, was 5-for-10 from 3-point range as Edmonson notched a win in its first state tournament appearance since the school made a surprising state-title run during the 1976 Sweet 16. He also showed the ability to knock down the pull-up jumper off the dribble and was 11-for-19 from the field.

Edmonson will take on Bardstown, a 54-48 winner over Lexington Christian, in Saturday morning's quarterfinals.

Rich had a simple explanation for the contrast between his performance this summer and his play this season, one in which he totes a 22-point scoring average and shoots 38 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.

"I had just taken the cast off my foot when I went to Hawaii," Rich said. "I had been on crutches before that, so I wasn't playing real well then, not like I'm playing now."

Told that Walker had said he would rather have seen Rich shoot that well this summer instead of now, Rich smiled and responded "Yeah, I wish I would have shot like that in Hawaii, too."

It wasn't just Rich's perimeter marksmanship that did in the Lyons — his teammates got in on the fun, too. Four different Wildcats buried 3-pointers against Lyon's 1-3-1 zone in the first quarter.

A switch to a halfcourt trap brought Lyon back, and the score was tied at halftime. But Edmonson's Aaron Duncan buried a three on the first possession of the second half, and Rich drilled three from long range over the next six minutes.

"We never saw a film on them because we left so early," said Lyon coach Jeff Embrey, who brought his team to Richmond on Monday to avoid the oncoming winter storm, "and really, what we heard on them wasn't quite what we saw. And we didn't know that Rich would light us up like that."

Meanwhile, the Wildcats' sagging man-to-man defense and constant double-teaming of the 6-7, 235-pound Walker forced Lyon to try and win the game from the perimeter. But the Lyons (15-4) hit just 1 of 16 shots from 3-point range.

"They were bringing the double team from all different directions," said Walker, who had 14 points and eight rebounds. "You can handle it pretty well when you know where the double is coming from, but they kept switching it up."

Edmonson coach Darryl Travis, a Lyon alumnus, credited 6-1 forward Mike Wallace for most of the work on Walker. "He really got in him every time he touched the ball, and didn't let him go forward," Travis said. "He had to go side-to-side, and when he had to dribble we always had someone there helping on him."

Point guard Timmy Perdue was able to take the ball to the basket and was 6-for-8 from the field while scoring 13 points with three assists, but the rest of the Lyons were unable to consistently knock down the jumper.

Afterwards, Travis admitted he didn't particularly enjoy his team's first assignment.

"I went to school with parents of three of their starters," Travis said. "Yeah, I would much rather have played someone else."

As it turned out, so would have Embrey.

"As badly as we feel about the way we played, we know the people back home have had it a lot worse," Embrey said. "We might just keep them up here for a couple of more days because the way things are back home. A lot of these guys haven't been able to talk to their parents for a couple of days.

"The way things are, we don't know how long it will be before we can play another game."


Lyon County (15-4) ... 8 30 41 50
Edmonson County (12-7) ... 16 30 48 68

LYON COUNTY — Peeler 2, Corley 6, Walker 14, Gray 11, Perdue 13, Houk 3, Kinnis, Crady, Polk, Fraliex, Ringstaff 1, Sutton.

Field goals 22/54. 3-pointers 1/16 (Houk). Free throws 5/11. Rebounds 22. Fouls 11.

EDMONSON COUNTY — Wallace 12, Massey 7, Rich 31, Duncan 11, Clemmons 7, Cowles, Wells, Cook, Caudill, Milam, Booth.

Field goals 24/44. 3-pointers 10/21 (Rich 5, Duncan 3, Clemmons, Massey). Free throws 10/12. Rebounds 36. Fouls 9.