By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Cooper boys’ basketball coach Tim Sullivan decided to give his players more freedom to shoot the ball this season and it worked out well in the Jaguars’ opening game on Thursday.
Cooper shot 57 percent from the field on its home court and upset Covington Catholic, 67-54, in a season-opening showdown between the top two teams in the Northern Kentucky coaches pre-season poll.
CovCath was voted No. 1 in the poll after winning back-to-back 9th Region championships, but the Colonels struggled on offense with three first-year starters in the lineup. Cooper took an 11-point in the first half and kept the margin in double digits the rest of the game.
The victory assured Sullivan that adjusting his team’s offensive game plan was a good idea.
“I’m trying to let the leash go a little bit for these guys and let them play and just let them have fun out there,” the coach said. “I was never an offensive guy, but I’m starting to learn a little bit and these guys are teaching me as much as I’m teaching them.”
Junior guard Sean McNeil scored a game-high 28 points for the Jaguars. In the second quarter, he hit a 3-point shot on three consecutive possessions during a run that put his team ahead 35-24 at halftime.
At the break, Cooper was shooting 66.7 percent (12 of 18) from the field with six 3-point goals compared to CovCath’s 31.4 percent (11 of 35) and just one trey.
Cooper didn’t score in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. That gave CovCath a chance to get back in the game when the Colonels made four trips to the free throw line with the clock stopped, but they made only three of the eight foul shots.
McNeil ended up going 8-of-10 from the field overall, 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point line and 8-of-10 from the foul line. He also had eight rebounds and three assists.
“In practice, I haven’t been shooting at all very well,” McNeil said. “But coming in here with a big crowd and a big stage, I was just trying to play and impress.”
McNeil had a much better night than CovCath junior guard Cole VonHandorf, who was voted the top player in Northern Kentucky’s preseason coaches poll. He finished with a team-high 15 points, but he was 4-of-23 from the field overall and 1-of-6 on 3-point attempts.
Sullivan had senior Dante Hendrix guarding VonHandorf for most of the game.
“Once Cole gets going, he’s tough,” Sullivan said. “But Dante is a competitor too. That’s the best part about watching him, he just fights the whole time and never stops.”
VonHandorf wasn’t the only CovCath player who had a hard time putting the ball in the basket. The Colonels ended up shooting just 29 percent (18 of 62) from the field and 65 percent (15 of 23) from the free throw line.
Those numbers might have been the reason CovCath coach Scott Ruthsatz was still in the locker room with his players more than 30 minutes after the game ended.
Sullivan said the victory was “a great measuring stick “ for his team, but it’s much too early in the season to get complacent. “We have to understand that we have to practice very single day like we’re playing the No. 1 team,” he said.
COVCATH 10 14 14 16 – 54
COOPER 17 18 18 14 – 67
COVCATH (0-1): VonHandorf 4 6 15, Flood 4 4 12, Mayer 5 0 10, Ruthsatz 1 1 4, Heppler 4 1 10, Ziegelmeyer 0 3 3. Totals: 18 15 54.
COOPER (1-0): Hendrix 3 1 8, Kunkel 2 5 9, Runion 1 0 3, C. McNeil 3 2 9, S. McNeil 8 8 28, Rohlman 1 0 3, Brown 2 1 5, Watson 1 0 2. Totals: 20 19 67.
Three-pointers: CC – VonHandorf, Ruthsatz, Heppler. CO – S. McNeil 4, Hendrix, Runion, C. McNeil, Rohlman.