Dixie Heights wore black shooting shirts with “Beat Yesterday” on the front.
Lloyd Memorial, however, beat the Colonels. The Juggernauts rode an 18-2 third quarter run in Tuesday’s 52-31, 34th District win at Scheben Gymnasium.
Lloyd (14-6, 3-0), ranked fourth in the LINK nky poll, not only emphatically snapped No. 8 Dixie’s (12-4, 1-1) eight-game winning streak, the Juggernauts won their third straight and held the Colonels to 15 second-half points.
Dixie’s 31 points were the fewest since a 53-24 loss to Newport on Dec. 7, 2023. If Lloyd handed out game balls, Carter Bresser should’ve received one for face-guarding and holding Dixie’s Griffen Derry (the Colonels’ leading scorer) to nine points.
Bresser credited the film study.
“A lot of the plays they ran, I kind of knew where (Derry) was going, what he was going to do,” Bresser said. “So I was able to focus in on that … He was coming off a lot of screens on the wings and the corners to get 3s. A few times they posted him up, trying to get him some post-ups. He was kind of all over the court; he kept running the whole time.”
Lloyd coach Michael Walker said Bresser doesn’t always face-guard an opponent.
“Everything we do is game-specific,” Walker said.
Jayden Humphrey led Lloyd (14-6, 3-0 in the district) with 13 points. EJ Walker was next with 11, and Anthony Blaackar added 10.
Tuesday was also a battle of dueling half-court defenses – Dixie’s 2-3 and 2-1-2 zones versus Lloyd’s man-to-man. EJ Walker finished the first half with six points, but his work against Dixie’s Hunter Seng – a block and several altered shots – was equally important because Seng didn’t score all night.
Lloyd has played one of Northern Kentucky’s toughest schedules with Louisville St. Xavier, Ashland, Male, state runner-up Harlan County, Great Crossing, Cooper, Covington Catholic, Newport and Highlands. Coach Walker said his team “finally” played some good defense.
“I made our schedule grueling at first,” Coach Walker said. “… I’m a defensive-minded coach for the most part. We kind of got back to that.”
Neither Dixie nor Lloyd scored much early; the Colonels didn’t hit their first field goal until Owen Niehues’ bucket a little more than two minutes into the game, while the Juggernauts went nearly four minutes without a 2-pointer.
Seng limited Walker to one free throw in the first quarter, but it didn’t hurt much – Lloyd took a 10-6 lead on Blaackar’s four points, Bressar’s 3-pointer, and Isaiah Sebastian’s steal and layup.
Derry’s four points pulled the Colonels to within 13-11 with a little more than three minutes before halftime, and Tyson Metzger’s 3-pointer with 47 seconds left closed Lloyd’s lead to 18-16.
You could’ve summarized the third quarter in two words – baseline dominance.
Walker started with a tip-in. Blaackar followed with an offensive rebound and put-back, Isaiah Sebastian converted Blaackar’s pass, Walker assisted on Bresser’s layup, and Humphrey’s basket completed the 10-0 run for a 28-16 lead.
“They’re a really good team, strong, fast,” Dixie coach Scott Code said. “We couldn’t get many rebounds, we couldn’t get out in transition.”
For about three minutes of the fourth quarter, the Juggernauts became the Lloyd Memorial Humphreys – he scored nine points.
“It was obviously a big game because we wanted to be the No. 1 seed going into districts,” EJ Walker said. “But I think we were just ready and hungry to get a win.”
JUGGERNAUTS 52, COLONELS 31
DIXIE HEIGHTS 6 10 2 13 – 31
LLOYD MEMORIAL 10 8 18 16 – 52
Dixie Heights (31) — Metzger 3, Rubemeyer 4, Simpson 4, Niehues 5, Morris 3, Derry 9, Collins 3. 3-Pt. FG: 4 (Derry, Collins, Metzger, Morris). FT: 3-4. Fouls: 7. Fouled out: None.
Lloyd Memorial (52) — Blaackar 10, Sebastian 6, Walker 11, Humphrey 13, Bresser 8, Copeland 2, Lewis 2. 3-Pt. FG: 4(Bresser 2, Walker, Humphrey). FT: 6-8. Fouls: 5. Fouled out: None.
Records: Dixie Heights 12-4 (1-1), Lloyd Memorial 14-6 (3-0).