It felt like a postseason game in Union with the energetic crowd and physicality as
Ryle and Boone County battled it out in a 33rd district regular season matchup.
Throughout their own offensive struggles, the Rebels were still able to escape with a
70-60 win.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well tonight, so we had to rely on our defense. I thought we
did a pretty good job of sitting down and guarding and making things difficult on
them. Ryle was physical so we had to match their physicality and I thought we did a
good job of that,” Boone County head coach Nathan Browning said.
When perimeter shots weren’t falling, Boone County was able to get the ball inside and finish.
The Rebels’ Maddox Jones was a force in the paint on offense and defense. He had a
game-high 24 points, battled for rebounds, and was contesting Ryle’s shots down
low.
“I just dug deep, found holes, boxed out, grabbed the ball, and put it right in. I’ll give it
to Ryle though they know how to box out. They made it very hard in there. Very
physical team.” Jones said. “We knew coming in here. This place is always packed.
Crazy place, crazy atmosphere. To be honest, it makes me play better.”
Mason Hall also made his contributions in the scoring column. He had 17 points and
the team’s only two threes. Elijah Bodkin had 14 and an alley-oop slam for the
finishing touch in the final minute.
Ryle got good looks, hustled, and kept it tight the whole way through, but could
never dig out of the hole. Boone County started the game up 5-0 and never lost the lead.
“I wanna give credit to Coach Browning and his guys. They played tough all night,” Ryle coach Nick Dorning said. “He had them prepared. I feel like it’s always a battle with Boone County. They made more plays than we did. Pretty close game throughout the beginning of the fourth quarter and they were able to pull away. Some really good players on their end and mistakes and mishaps on our end.”
Landon Lorms scored six straight in the last minute of the first quarter to cut it to 17-
15, but the Rebels held on making it 34-28 at the half.
As the game went on, the lead continued to grow. It was cut down to six in the first
minutes of the fourth quarter, but it grew to 12, the largest lead of the game. Crucial
turnovers and bad passes hurt Ryle down the stretch.
“If you look at our numbers throughout the course of the season our turnovers are
way down this year. We feel like our guys do a really good job of possessing the
basketball and we always have a saying in practice. No maybe passes. Tonight, we
made too many maybe passes that were deflected,” Dorning said.
Grady Reynolds led Ryle in scoring with 16 points, while AJ Davis put up 12, and
Landon Lorms finished with 11.
The Raiders are 4-4 but can get back on track as they head to Beth Haven for the
Beth Haven Holiday Classic Dec. 21-23.
Boone County adds their fifth win to their total and with just one loss, the Rebels are
looking solid. They will be heading to Holy Cross Tuesday.
REBELS 70, RAIDERS 60
BOONE COUNTY — 17-17-15-21 — 70
RYLE — 15-13-13-19 — 60
Scoring
Boone County (70) – Jones 24, Hall 17, Bodkin 14, Williams 7, Moore 4, Clos 4
Ryle (60) – Reynolds 16, Davis 12, Lorms 11, Coppola 8, H. Smith 5, L. Verax 4, Draine
3, Lyons 1
Game Stats
3-Pointers made: Boone County 2, Ryle 4
Free Throws: Boone County 8/17, Ryle 9/17
Fouls: Boone County 11, Ryle 16
Records: Boone County 5-1, Ryle 4-4
GIRLS
RYLE 65, BOONE COUNTY 22
From beginning to end, Ryle put on a clinic in all areas of the game in a rout of their
district foe Boone County.
“It was a really great team win. We took care of the ball, stayed disciplined on the
defensive side, and didn’t allow them to have too many offensive boards. All the little
things that we have continued to work on,” Ryle head coach Katie Haitz said.
The Lady Raiders’ spread-out scoring was a key to their victory.
They had 11 different scorers, led by Jaelyn Jones with 20 points, nine coming off
3-pointers and Sarah Baker with 13.
Ryle did most of their scoring in transition and with good ball movement.
“We work on it a lot. We talked about that from the beginning of the season about
pushing the ball, being in shape, being able to read what the defense is allowing us.
Just taking care of the ball and making the right decisions of where it needed to go,” Haitz said.
Boone County struggled offensively all the way through, including just two points in
the fourth quarter…but there was no question about the effort they gave.
“We take away from here that we did pretty good with effort and for
the teams that we will be competing with, that’s what we need,” Boone County head
coach Todd Humphrey said. “One thing that would help is that we get a player back
next week. One of our starters and leaders has been out with an ACL injury, so when
she comes back that will open up our team.”
The Lady Rebels were led in scoring by Lyric Hooper with 11 points, while Joslyn
Humphrey added 9.
Ryle’s ability to go on huge runs also propelled them to the win.
The Lady Raiders started the game with a 17-4 run, but the second quarter put the
game out of reach. They went on a 12-3 run, eight of those coming from Jones. Heading into halftime, they led 43-15.
By the end of the third quarter, the game had a running clock due to a 56-20 score.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Raiders were able to use more of their depth,
including nine points off the bench.
Ryle picked up their first district win of the season, fourth win overall, and make it
23 straight wins over the Lady Rebels. They will be back in action December 21-23 at
the White, Greer & Maggard Holiday Classic at Lexington Catholic.
Boone County falls to 2-4, but will have a chance to break their three-game losing
streak Monday at Newport.
Ryle 65, Boone County 22
BOONE COUNTY — 6-9-5-2 — 22
RYLE — 17-26-13-9 — 65
Scoring
Boone County (22) – Hooper 11, Humphrey 9, Land 2
Ryle (65) –Jones 20, Baker 13, Eubank 8, Peters 7, Warner 4, Singel 3, Carrigan 2,
Elliott 2, Fong 2, McClain 2, Miller 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers made: Boone County 1, Ryle 5
Free Throws: Boone County 2/9, Ryle 4/7
Fouls: Boone County 9, Ryle 14
Records: Boone County 2-4, Ryle 4-2