No. 2 Lyons outgun short-handed Rockets

Rocket junior Kaiden Travis comes down with
a rebound, but his hair was slow to catch up.

MARION, Ky. – Grossly overmatched by No. 2 Lyon County, Crittenden County played shot well and punched above its weight at times despite having four of its top six players out for various reasons. Still, the Rockets lost 104-55 in the opening round of All A Classic Tuesday at Rocket Arena.

Lyon senior Travis Perry, a UK commit, scored a game-high 32, including eight 3-pointers. Lyon dropped 17 threes in the game with senior Jack Reddick getting three and scoring 21 points.

Sophomore Bryson Walker led CCHS with 22 points, including four three-pointers.

Local fans will have an opportunity to get more looks at Lyon’s stellar lineup later this week as Crittenden County hosts the semifinals and championship of the All A on Friday and Saturday. 

With the All A loss, Crittenden County’s record drops to 2-10 while Lyon improved to 16-1.
Lyon County 37 65 83 104
Crittenden 19 26 40 55
LYON – Perry 32, Shoulders 10, Reddick 21, Kirk 18, Breedlove 3, Ca.Collins, Defew 8, Crawford 3, Burchett 9, Co.Collins. FG 40. 3-pointers 17 (Perry 8, Reddick 3, Burchett 3, Crawford, Defew, Kirk). FT 7-10.
CRITTENDEN – Walker 22, Hatfield 6, Dayberry 3, Sharp 9, Travis 8, Poindexter 4, LaRue, Young. FG 23. 3-pointers 8 (Walker 4, Sharp 2, Dayberry, LaRue). FT 1-3.

Tribute to Coach Shannon Hodge's 400th win

Crittenden County Lady Rockets shared a tribute to Coach Shannon Hodge after her 400th win Jan. 4 at Webster County. For more about Hodge's career, see the Jan. 11 full edition of The Crittenden Press. 

Lady Rockets win, advance to All A semis

MARION, Ky. – Crittenden County, the winningest Second Region team in All A Classic history, punched its ticket to the semifinal round on Monday with a 50-18 blowout over Dawson Springs.

The Lady Rockets, who have won eight small-school regional championships including last year's crown, will play final-four host Caldwell County at 6pm in Thursday’s semifinal. Caldwell beat Heritage Christian in similar fashion 52-3 in its opening round contest at Princeton on Monday.

Lyon County knocked off Livingston Central 56-42 in an opener at Lyon and will play Ft. Campbell in Thursday’s 7:30pm semifinal at Caldwell County. The Lady Falcons received a first-round bye because UHA did not field a team this season. 

Dawson Springs was terribly outmanned against the Lady Rockets, who led from the jump. Sophomore Anna Boone sank a couple of first-quarter threes to help CCHS race out to a 20-4 lead in the first period. Boone and Lady Rocket sophomore center Bristyn Rushing led all scorers with a dozen points apiece. Rushing had five fielders in the post and two free throws. 

CCHS moved back above .500 at 8-7 on the season. Dawson fell to 2-8. The Lady Rockets have beaten the Panther girls in 17 straight meetings dating back to 2013.

Dawson Springs 4 4 9 18
Crittenden County 20 30 44 50
DAWSON – Hoover 10, Swatzell 2, Bock 6, Lowe, Hunter. FG 8. 3-pointers 2 (Hoover). FT 0-1.
CRITTENDEN – Boone 12, Evans 6, Hodge 8, Federico 1, Rushing 12, Holeman, Walker 2, Stewart 7, Munday, Champion 2. FG 19. 3-pointers 2 (Boone 2). FT 10-12.

All A Classic Pairings | Perry coming to RA

 The All A Classic starts tonight at Crittenden County with the girls hosting Dawson Springs for the opening round. The semifinals and championship will be at Caldwell County.

The boys' All A Classic will bring Lyon County star and UK signee Travis Perry to Rocket Arena. The boys open play Tuesday with Crittenden playing Lyon. 

Following are brackets for each tournament. 

UPDATE ON GIRLS' BRACKET

The GIRLS All A Championship game is being moved

 to 2pm on Saturday, Jan 13 at Crittenden County High School.  

Click Image to Enlarge 

UPDATE ON BOYS' BRACKET

The boys All A Championship game is being moved

 to 5pm on Saturday, Jan 13 at Crittenden County High School.  

Click Image to Enlarge 

Champion scores 25 before going down again

UPDATE: Corrects Champion's career scoring.

MARION, Ky. – In a bitter-sweet return to Rocket Arena for the first time since mid December, Crittenden County posted its first home win of the season 59-50 Friday over Muhlenberg County.

Travis Champion drives toward the basket
in the fourth period just before re-injuring
the knee he originally hurt in December.

On the up side, senior star Travis Champion – who suffered an ACL tear in his knee last month – scored 25 points to lead the way on his 18th birthday. However, the jubilance of his return in a heavy knee brace was smothered with a minute to go in the game when he went down in the front court making a move toward the basket. 

Champion was helped off of the floor and coach Matt Fraliex said afterwards that the senior will undergo further evaluation to determine the extent of damage to his injured knee.

Champion’s valiant effort and 18 points from sophomore Bryson Walker led CCHS to its second win of the season against nine losses. Muhlenberg dropped to 5-9.

The Rocket boys will be back in action Tuesday at home against Lyon County in the All A Classic.

Champion has been chasing the Rockets' all-time scoring record. He has netted 56 points this season and 1,421 in his career, which is 401 from tying the record. 

Muhlenberg County 10 24 30 50

Crittenden County 13 23 38 59

MUHLENBERG – Gavin 2, Brannon 4, Sommers 16, Edwards, Coats 5, Milburn, Jernigan 11, Hardin, Morris 6, Jarvis 6. FG 18. 3- pointers 3. FT 11-17.

CRITTENDEN – Champion 25, Walker 18, Hatfield 7, Sharp 4, Candelario, Travis 2, Poindexter 3. FG 21. 3-pointers 3 (Champion). FT 14-25.

Champion returns, but Rockets fall at Ft. Campbell

 FT. CAMPBELL – Senior Travis Champion returned to the floor for the first time since early in the season, but Crittenden County lost 57-53 on the road to Fort Campbell.

Champion scored 8 points in his first game back, playing in a brace on a partially torn ACL. Turner Sharp led the Rocket scoring with a dozen points while Bryson Walker and Jaxon Hatfield had 11 apiece.

A scuffle broke out in the fourth period and five players were ejected, including two Crittenden County boys.

CCHS (1-9) led by six at the half, but the Falcons (3-3) took the lead with a 16-5 run in the third period. 

The Rockets will be at home Friday night to entertain Muhlenberg County (5-8).

Crittenden County 17 30 35 53
Fort Campbell 12 24 40 57
CRITTENDEN – Champion 8, Belcher 7, Walker 11, Hatfield 11, Sharp 12, Reddick 3, Poindexter 1. FG 20. 3-pointers 5 (Hatfield 2, Champion, Belcher, Sharp). FT 8-16.
FT CAMPBELL – Greene 2, Moore 21, Perriman, Wilson 7, Tate 6, Smith 4, Smiley 10, Arnold 7. FG 25. 3-pointers 3. FT 4-10.

Coach Shannon Hodge gets Win No. 400!

DIXON, Ky. – From the jump Thursday at Webster County, the Lady Rockets had a solid bead on Coach Shannon Hodge’s 400th career win.

Crittenden led wire to wire, by double figures much the way, as the 31-year skipper became one of fewer than three dozen girls’ coaches in Kentucky high school history to reach the 400-win plateau. 

Hodge’s overall record over more than three decades as the Lady skipper is now 400-420 as her team improved to 7-7 on the season behind Anna Boone’s 28 points. Crittenden got another 13 from center Bristyn Rushing, plus double-digit rebounding. 

Webster County, in a rebuilding season for a storied Second Region program, fell to 1-11.

Crittenden County 14 29 41 56

Webster County 4 15 31 38

CRITTENDEN. – Boone 28, Evans 8, Federico 2, Rushing 13, Hodge 5, Holeman. FG 19. 3-pointers 3 (Boone 2, Hodge). FT 15-21.

WEBSTER – Wright 17, Thompson 3, Cates 6, Dunn 3, Yates 4, Austin 5. FG 16. 3-pointers 4 (Wright 3, Thompson). FT 2-4.