‘They flipped it.’ Late defensive change sparks Clark to Sweet 16 semis past Lyon County.

After Lyon County erased an eight-point third quarter deficit to take a one-point lead early in the fourth, George Rogers Clark switched its defense and upped its intensity to claim a 60-56 victory in Friday’s final quarterfinals matchup of the 2023 UK HealthCare Boys’ Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.

“Every time somebody would think they would get a little bit of momentum or get in the driver’s seat, somebody on the team would step up and make a big shot,” Clark Coach Josh Cook said of his defending state champions. “It’s a stressful game to be a part of, but man, that was a special game, guys.”

Switching from man-to-man defense to a zone trap after Lyon took the lead produced three Lyon turnovers and a missed three-pointer that led to a 7-0 run for the Cardinals. Two Trent Edwards free throws after Jerone Morton’s second steal of the sequence put Clark up 58-51 with 2:28 to go. Reshaun Hampton also had a steal that led to a bucket in the run.

“(The Lyons) shoot so well that you have to play a lot of man (defense) and we played man for probably, I’d say 85-90% of the game,” Cook said. “But we wanted to throw them off track with a little half-court trap, and our guys are really good at it.”

Lyon (31-6) controlled the early part of the game and led 13-6 at the end of the first quarter, but Clark (29-5) closed the second period with a dunk by Trent Edwards and five consecutive three-pointers to go in front 30-24 at halftime.

“I felt like that stretch in the second quarter was the difference,” Lyon County Coach Ryan Perry said. “We pretty much had control of the game and they flipped it.”

It looked for a while like Clark could pull away in the third quarter as it made the last of its 12 three-pointers on 24 attempts. Hampton’s fourth three-pointer gave the Cards’ their biggest edge, 43-35, with 3:31 to play in the third.

But Lyon responded with a 16-5 run that included two Travis Perry three-pointers, the last of which put the Lyons in front 51-50 with 6:47 to play in the game.

“We had a couple of bad, bad turnovers there,” Coach Perry said. “When they went to zone there, we got a little out of sorts.”

All five Clark starters scored in double figures led by point guard Sam Parrish’s 15 points, which included three three-pointers. Trent Edwards had two threes among his 12 points. Hampton also had 12 and Morton added 11, and, of course, that included a three-pointer.

“It just shows that we all believe in each other and trust each other making plays at the right time,” Morton said of the balanced offense. “We’ve all got confidence and we play together.”

In addition to changing the momentum in the fourth, Clark’s defense also held Perry to 19 points, 13 below his average. Jack Reddick and Brady Shoulders each added 14 points. Perry broke the all-time career scoring mark of “King” Kelly Coleman on Thursday against Newport.

While he was doing that, the standout junior also passed Johnson Central’s Mason Blair for most three-pointers made in a season (168) set in 2017. The new record will be Perry’s 175 once confirmed.

“It’s always a good season when you end at Rupp,” Perry said. “There’s just a couple of things that we could have cleaned up to maybe affect the outcome of that game, but overall we fought as hard as we could, we played as hard as we could.”

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