Rocket season ends against mighty Lyons

First-year Rocket head coach Matt Fraliex goes
over strategy during a timeout Tuesday at Lyon.

One of the best Fifth District teams in basketball history had little trouble ending one of Crittenden County’s most difficult seasons on Tuesday.

Ranked among the state’s top five teams all season long, Lyon County dispatched the Rockets 88-44 on their home floor. 

For Crittenden, an enormous underdog, it signaled the end to a frustrating season filled with injuries that left insurmountable challenges for a winning season.

Crittenden finished with three victories in 28 games. 

Over the past five or six years, Lyon has held an incredible advantage over the entire Fifth District with perhaps its best team in history, led by UK commit Travis Perry and two other Division I basketball recruits – Jack Reddick and Brady Shoulders. Reddick has offers from The Citadel and Florida Gulf Coast. Shoulders is headed to UT-Martin.

Lyon has beaten the Rockets in 24 of the last 26 encounters, and 13 in a row dating back to 2020 when Crittenden won by surprising Lyon with incredible shooting at Rocket Arena. 

Crittenden’s historic troubles in dealing with their neighbors to the south are well documented, but in the last few years Lyon has dominated much of the region during its celebrated run as Perry has become Kentucky’s career scoring leader.

For first-year head coach Matt Fraliex, the playoff loss was certainly not a surprise, and as he’s done all throughout his inaugural campaign, the coach has remained positive and encouraging despite some difficult odds. When senior Travis Champion – who was on a trajectory to become CCHS’s all-time leading scorer – tore his ACL in the season’s second game, it left an unfillable void in the Rocket psyche, and its scorebook. What Fraliex did find was the character of his team that stayed together, and sophomore Bryson Walker emerged as the Rocket star of now. His talents were clear before having to take a leadership role this season, but in the absence of another consistent offensive weapon, Walker stepped up with a 19-point scoring average over the course of the season.

Crittenden Co. 3 20 35 44
Lyon County       25 48 76 88
CRITTENDEN – Belcher 2, Walker 13, Hatfield 5, Sharp 5, Keller 13, Reddick 6, Travis, Poindexter. FG 15. 3-pointers 3 (Walker 2, Sharp). FT 11-25.
LYON – Perryman 31, Shoulders 7, Reddick 11, Kirk 8, Breedlove 8, DeFew 2, Ca.Collins 7, Crawford 5, Co.Collins 6, Burchett, Herring, Ramey, Je.Reddick, Phillips 3, Prow. FG 33. 3-pointers 16. (Perry 9, Reddick, Kirk, Ca.Collins, Crawford, Co.Collins 2, Phillips). FT 6-9