Rebels run out of gas, fall to Lexington in state championship
Will Fowler’s 26 points weren’t enough to propel Byrnes to a win over a high-powered Lexington offense.
Byrnes’ historic 2023-24 season didn’t get its perfect ending.
With a 67-48 loss to Lexington in the Class 5-A state championship, the Runnin’ Rebels finished one win shy of their first state title since 2016.
“It hurts. I know what our players have put into this, what they’ve invested,” said Byrnes head coach Layne Fowler after the game. “It’s a hard one to swallow.”
The Runnin’ Rebels had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night in the loss. As a team, Byrnes shot just 18-59 from the field. Take out senior guard Will Fowler’s 11-19 shooting performance and that rate drops to a shocking 7-40 from the field—just 17.5 percent.
“When you’re shooting the ball that poorly, it’s hard to beat a team as good as Lexington,” said Layne. “And full credit to them, they did a lot of things defensively tonight that threw us off. They played a disruptive zone and made it hard on us to get anything going.”
Will was the only Runnin’ Rebel to find much in terms of offense in the contest. Byrnes scored a season-low 22 first-half points. Will had 20 of them.
It became too heavy a weight to shoulder in the second half, as Will ran out of gas.
“[Will] was putting up a fight. He wanted to prove that he’s one of the best players in the state, and I think he proved it tonight,” said Layne. “He was battling, and in the end, he was still wanting to make plays. Eventually, fatigue just took its toll.”
Will finished with 26 of Byrnes’ 48 points in the game. As a team, it was the Runnin’ Rebels’ lowest-scoring performance of the season.
It’s just disappointing because you know how hard your kids worked and everything they’ve put into it and, in the end, we just didn’t play our best basketball”, said Fowler.
Byrnes fell 67-48 to Lexington in the Class 5-A state championship game in Florence.
Byrnes finishes the season with a 26-5 record. The Runnin’ Rebels won their first region title and made a state championship appearance for the first time since 2016.
For as much as the loss hurts, Fowler says, it takes away nothing from his pride in this year’s team.
“I love these guys, I really do. I’m so proud of them,” said Fowler. “Even though it didn’t go our way tonight, we aren’t going to let that distract us from everything we accomplished. At some point, they’ll get to reflect and realize we went 8-0 in a really tough region and made it to the state championship. That’s amazing.
“If you could will this last piece of the puzzle for them, you would. But tonight just wasn’t our night. We just didn’t have it.”
THE SCORE BY QUARTERS
Lexington 11 18 17 21 - 67
Byrnes 10 12 10 16 - 48
BYRNES STAT LEADERS
Will Fowler - 26 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
Kayzzin McDowell - 8 points, 8 rebounds
Jamari Cullen - 7 points
Evan Enos - 4 points, 2 rebounds