‘No losers in this game.’ Harlan County and Lyon County remind all of Sweet 16’s promise.

Harlan County couldn’t complete another incredible comeback, but its contributions to Kentucky high school basketball history will be no less heralded.

Down 14 in the first half, the Black Bears evened things by the end of the third quarter but ultimately succumbed to Lyon County 67-58 in the UK HealthCare Boys’ Sweet 16 championship game on Saturday night in Rupp Arena.

On Friday — behind a 48-point masterpiece from senior Trent Noah — Harlan County forced overtime to defeat Campbell County in the quarterfinals. Earlier Saturday, the Black Bears fended off Evangel Christian and its dynamic backcourt in the late semifinal. Tied at 50 with 6:47 left in the finals, Lyon County mounted an 8-0 run — the only one from which the runners-up couldn’t recover.

“They were the aggressor early and I thought we kind of punched ’em back late,” Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said. “For the fans, it was a good game to watch.”

Noah, who has signed with South Carolina, was held to 17 points, his lowest total in a tournament wherein he posted the three single-highest scoring games — he also had 29 against Evangel earlier in the day and 35 against defending state champion Warren Central in the first round on Thursday. His 129 points were the fourth-most in any Sweet 16 — behind Wayland’s Kelly Coleman (185 in 1956), Clay County’s Richie Farmer (137 in 1988) and Shawnee’s Ronnie Daniel (130 in 1973). Noah’s total was the most since Chris Lofton scored 112 in the 2004 tournament.

Speaking of Lofton, Noah broke his single-tournament record of 17 made 3-pointers, finishing with 19. His 48-point game was the fourth-highest single-game output in the event’s 106-year history.

The tournament MVP award might have been his, even in a loss, if not for his friend Travis Perry. The state’s all-time leading scorer, reigning Mr. Basketball and University of Kentucky signee scored 27 points and dealt five assists in the Lyons’ victory.

Noah ended his career with 3,707 points, good for fifth in Kentucky boys basketball history.

“He actually texted me pretty much as soon as they won (in the semifinals),” Perry said. “I was laying in bed and he texted me and said, ‘Good luck, tonight is gonna be awesome and you’re always my guy.’ I texted him back, ‘There’s no losers in this game.’ There’s really not. Trent had a legendary career.”

Tournament reflection

Championship Saturday was one to remember for Kentucky’s premier basketball event.

Any of the final four teams — Lyon County eliminated Great Crossing, the state’s No. 1 team, to get to the title bout — would have been first-time champions. The final game pitted two rural schools from opposite ends of the state. Harlan County ranks among the poorest in the commonwealth while Lyon County’s population — 8,721 — puts it in the bottom 20.

Kentucky is one of only two states, along with Delaware, that crowns only one champion in its basketball tournaments. Fans occasionally lobby for Kentucky to follow others who divide their state tournaments into divisions based on enrollment — and like the KHSAA does for some other state championships, like football. Days like Saturday are evidence that it’d be foolish to do so.

“Don’t mess with it,” said Lyon County coach Ryan Perry, whose school’s enrollment at the start of this school year was 293 — three fewer than 2010 champion Shelby Valley, the last winner to not come from a densely populated area. “The tournament is so good the way it is. We lost the last two years to big schools, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything. This is what it’s all about. Little schools doing something like this every now and then, and to have two schools like that, Lyon County and Harlan County going at it? It’s just amazing.”

The championship drew 13,568 fans, rounding out a four-day attendance of 99,915. That’s the biggest crowd the tournament’s had since 2014 (101,683) and a slight uptick from last year’s 99,565. The 2023 and 2024 tournaments averaged about 6,000 more fans than the tournaments played from 2015-2019, and were drastic improvements over the 2021 (47,686) and 2022 (85,049) editions.

That it was Lyon County, the smaller of the two rural schools, that came out on top made the story that much sweeter for an event that bills itself as “the greatest show in hoops.”

“This win will be iconic,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said. “It’ll go up there with the Shelby Valley one, Paintsville (in 1996). Every time someone starts talking like the only way to do it is the way other people do it, this says, ‘We’re OK, there’s still a chance for everyone.’

“I guarantee that a third of our basketball schools are their size or smaller, and will start their offseason workouts going, ‘We can do it too. We’ve just gotta keep working.’ It just keeps the whole state buzzing about the basketball tournament, and that’s what’s really neat.”

Final day wrap-up of 2024 Boys’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament in Rupp Arena

‘For our community, it’s incredible.’ Tiny Lyon County roars to Boys’ Sweet 16 championship.

Future Wildcat Travis Perry ‘bionic’ in Lyon County’s Sweet 16 win vs. Great Crossing

‘Maybe some couches will be burned tonight’: Trent Noah powers Harlan Co. to state finals