BOWLING GREEN — The biggest star in Kentucky high school basketball exits the locker room, poses for some pictures, signs autographs and speaks with the media.

Travis Perry — University of Kentucky signee, Mr. Basketball front-runner — is living his best life these days.

He’d just scored 35 points to lead the Lyons to an 86-72 victory over Central Hardin in Saturday’s Wes Strader Schoolboy Classic at Warren Central. After the game, he headed to Lexington, where he received a nice ovation from the Rupp Arena crowd while being introduced during the Kentucky-Tennessee game.

Perry soaks it all in, enjoying his final few weeks in a Lyons uniform and the pursuit of the school’s first Sweet 16 championship.

“You hear NBA players say they’re going into the gym knowing that somebody new is watching them and so they have to give everything they have,” Perry said of the attention he and his teammates have received this season. “That’s kind of the mindset I try to take — just play hard, do whatever we can and just put on a good image, regardless of the outcome.”

The outcomes have been solid this season for a Lyon County squad that is 21-3 and ranked No. 4 in the Kentucky High School Basketball Media Poll.

Behind the leadership of Perry and fellow seniors Brady Shoulders and Jack Reddick, the Lyons are well-positioned to win their third straight Second Region title and make a deep run in the state tournament.

Brandon Salsman, coach of No. 2-ranked Lexington Catholic, saw his team drop an 83-63 decision to Lyon County on Dec. 30.

Salsman said Lyon County’s chemistry is exceptional.

“They’ve played together for a very long time, and you can tell,” Salsman said. “They throw (passes) and nobody is there, and then somebody just shows up. You’re like, ‘Hmm, not much you can do about that.’ They’re connected mentally, and they’re tough to guard.”

Here are three things to know about the Lyons:

It starts with Travis Perry

A 6-foot-2 guard, Perry joined the Lyon County varsity team as a seventh-grader and gained statewide recognition last March when he passed “King” Kelly Coleman as Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer.

This season he ranks third in the state in scoring at 29.3 points per game and second in 3-pointers made (102). Last month he scored his 5,000^th career point, becoming just the 10^th player in U.S. history to reach the milestone.

“You can’t help but root for him, except when he’s dropping 30 on you,” Salsman said. “The way he scores is phenomenal. I mean, 5,000 points? I don’t care how many games you play, that’s just incredible. He can score at any level, and his shot is so fundamentally sound. He repeats it every time he lets the ball loose.”

Go ahead and engrave Perry’s name on the Mr. Basketball trophy that will be presented March 17, three days before the Sweet 16 tips off.

Perry has plenty of help

While casual observers may consider Lyon County a one-man team, that’s far from the case.

“Travis is certainly the straw that stirs the drink,” Salsman said, “but he has a lot of help.”

Shoulders, a 6-6 forward, averages 17.8 points and leads the Lyons in rebounding (9.7 rpg). He has signed with Tennessee-Martin.

Reddick, a 6-3 guard, pitches in 14.7 points per game and is the team’s No. 2 3-point shooter behind Perry. He recently picked up his first NCAA Division I scholarship offer from The Citadel.

Reddick has missed Lyon County’s past two games with an ankle injury, but head coach Ryan Perry — Travis’ father — expects him back Saturday when the Lyons host Bowling Green.

Without Reddick, Lyon County showed its vulnerability Tuesday in a 78-73 loss at home to Henderson County.

“It’s hard when you’re playing without a guy like Reddick,” Ryan Perry said. “I’ve been telling college coaches so long, ‘You don’t understand how good this kid really is.’ Now, they’re all calling me and saying, ‘You’re right.’ … You take a guy like that out of the mix and it changes the way we play. Guys like that make everybody else look good.”

Lyons light up scoreboard

Lyon County leads the state in scoring at 86 points per game and has topped 100 points five times this season.

“Without playing with pace, we’re just an average basketball team,” Ryan Perry said. “That’s just the truth. … When we really push the ball and go, we’re a handful. We’re in such good shape. Our guys are conditioned very, very well. We hang our hat on being able to pull away in the fourth quarter because we’re mentally and physically in better shape at that point.”

The coach said practices are geared toward playing at a fast pace, with drills focused on getting shots up within 8 seconds.

Ryan Perry said he learned his lesson years ago when opponents routinely employed box-and-one or triangle-and-two defenses to slow his son.

“It’s so miserable playing against junk defenses like that,” he said. “We decided we were going to play so fast that they couldn’t even set their defenses up. We did it and ended up winning like 18 in a row and we’re like, ‘Man, this is fun.’ The fans love it, the kids love it. It’s hard to coach against, so it stuck. If we’re doing it right, it makes us hard to guard.”

Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Follow on X @kyhighs.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball signee Travis Perry could lead Lyons to 1st title