Porter Coleman jumps for a shot on Dec. 4, 2025.
MOREHEAD, Ky. — The Mason County Royals opened their season a day later than expected at Rowan County on Wednesday.
After winter weather caused the cancellation of Tuesday night’s season opener, the Royals tipped off at Rowan County Senior High School to face the Vikings in their first game of the 2025-26 season. Mason County, operating with an entirely new starting lineup took the floor ready to prove themselves, and to see where they stack up against strong competition.
Last year, the Royals and Vikings met in one of the first games of the season, with Rowan County pulling ahead for a 61-57 victory. This season, the Royals looked to get out on the winning end early.
In the first quarter, Rowan County jumped out ahead early, building up a ten-point lead by the end of the first eight minutes of play. The Vikings continued to apply the pressure to Mason County, extending their lead to 15 as the first half came to a close.
“We got off to a slow start there. We didn’t do a great job of containing the simple ball screen action, that got us down early,” said Royals head coach, Brian Kirk. “Our kids could have gave up. They didn’t. They continued to climb back, I think we cut it to seven there at one point in time, after being down 17 there in the first half. We’ve got the capability of going on runs, especially if you shoot the ball well, but we’ve got to be able to put stops together.”
At halftime the Royals were down 47-32, a deficit they were determined to close heading into the third quarter.
After returning to the court, Mason County held close with the Vikings, being outscored by just one point, 18-17. 3-point shooting from Jace Merz and Riley Lykins kept the Royals in the contest throughout the second half. Lykins went five for seven beyond the 3-point line, and Merz four for seven.
Down 65-47 at the start of the fourth quarter, Mason County continued to work towards pulling out a late-game comeback against the Vikings. The fourth was the Royals’ biggest quarter of the night, outscoring Rowan County 25-21, but were unable to get out ahead, and fell 86-74.
“Things could have been a lot worse tonight. Obviously, we’re not pleased with the outcome by any means, but, from what we’ve seen out of our guys this is something we can continue to build on and continue to see growth. We’re gonna see progress throughout the course of the year. We know that as a staff, we’ve tried to inform our kids of that. You’re gonna make mistakes, you’ve gotta be able to play through those,” coach Kirk said.
Despite the loss, coach Kirk is confident in his team’s ability, and pleased with their performance.
“I feel like we’re in a great spot right now. Nobody likes to lose. None of our kids like to lose, as a staff, we don’t like to lose, but we saw a lot of growth out of our kids tonight,” said coach Kirk. “Coming in with a very inexperienced team, returning 3-points a game, if you told me we was scoring 74 tonight I would’ve said there’s no way. I don’t think we’ve scored 74 combining our two teams in the past three days of practice. Our kids are coming out, shooting the ball with confidence. They’re playing loose which is something we’ve gotta do right now. Overall, very pleased.”
Following this contest, Mason County will return home to the Fieldhouse this evening to tip off against the Augusta Panthers in their first 39th District seed game of the season.
“We’re gonna talk about the things that we did well tonight and what we need to improve on, and look at the scouting report for Augusta. Early in the year, you don’t know what these teams are gonna do, you just kinda focus on us, continue to build on the things that we need to continue to build on, but first and foremost, our kids have to be the most excited team on the floor for 32 minutes. If we allow teams to out play us with energy and excitement, most of the time the outcome is not gonna be in our favor,” coach Kirk said.
The Royals and Panthers are set to tip off against one another tonight at 7:30 p.m.
ROYALS 74
VIKINGS 86
MASON COUNTY
15-17-17-25 – 74
ROWAN COUNTY
25-22-18-21 – 86
Scoring
Mason County – Fox 4, Chisley 6, Merz 24, Brookbank 13, Lykins 18, Jackson 2, Gill 7
Rowan County – Judd 7, Epling 5, Coleman 8, Cross 38, Barnett 22, Kadlec 6
Game Stats
Field Goals: Mason 26/54, Rowan 33/68
3-Pointers: Mason 14/30, Rowan 1/11
Free Throws: Mason 8/12, Rowan 19/24
Fouls: Mason 18, Rowan 17
Records: Mason 0-1, Rowan 1-0
