By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The career scoring leaders on two Northern Kentucky high school basketball teams pushed their point totals over the 2,000 mark in recent home games.
Covington Catholic senior guard Cole VonHandorf reached that milestone Monday when he scored 23 points in a home game against Campbell County to give him 2,008 total points in four varsity seasons.
Last week, Beechwood senior guard Allison Johnson scored 25 points in a home game against Ludlow to surpass the 2,000 mark and she got 23 points the next night against Newport to give her 2,030.
Johnson, who has accepted a scholarship from Bucknell University, began playing varsity basketball for Beechwood as an eighth-grader. Earlier this season, she broke the team’s previous career scoring record of 1,684 points that was set by 2001 graduate Katie Pohlgeers.
VonHandorf, a Fairmont State University recruit, is the first CovCath basketball player to reach the 2,000-point milestone. The team’s previous career scoring leader was 2014 graduate Nick Ruthsatz with 1,980 points.
As a freshman, VonHandorf averaged 10.9 points and was named to the all-state tournament team after the Colonels won the first state championship in the history of the program. He averaged a team-high 18.2 points during his sophomore season and was named to the all-state tournament team once again when CovCath made it to the state semifinals.
Last year, VonHandorf’s scoring average dipped to 16.9, partly due to ligament damage in the thumb on his shooting hand. This season, he’s averaging 17.3 points for the Colonels, who are ranked No. 1 in the state in The Louisville Courier Journal newspaper’s Litkenhous Ratings.
Simon Kenton among top girls’ basketball teams in LIT
Simon Kenton is one of four girls’ basketball teams from around the state playing in the quarterfinal round of the Louisville Invitational Tournament on Friday at Bellarmine University.
Teams in Louisville and the surrounding area played in the first two rounds of the tournament earlier this week. The ones that made it to the quarterfinals will now take on the four teams invited from around the state.
Simon Kenton will get a rematch with Louisville Sacred Heart at 5:30 Friday at Bellarmine. When the teams played each other on Dec. 10, Sacred Heart came away with an 84-76 win in overtime.
Five of the top six girls’ basketball teams in The Louisville Courier Journal newspaper’s latest Litkenhous Ratings are in the LIT quarterfinals. The matchups are No. 1 Louisville Butler vs. South Warren, No. 2 Louisville Male vs. Henderson County, No. 3 Mercer County vs. Bullitt East and No. 5 Simon Kenton vs. No. 6 Louisville Sacred Heart.
The semifinals will be played at 10 and 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Louisville Assumption High School with the winners returning for the championship game at 8 p.m.
Simon Kenton has a 17-3 record and 12-game winning a streak going into Thursday’s game at Conner. The Pioneers’ leading scorer is all-state junior guard Ally Niece, who is averaging 18.1 points per game by shooting 53 percent from the field and 87 percent from the free throw line.
State basketball tournament draws to be streamed online
Pairings for the first round of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association boys’ and girls’ state basketball tournaments will be decided next Wednesday, Feb. 1, during the Sweet 16 Draw Show that begins at 1 p.m.
The show will be streamed live online at khsaa.tv and wkyt.com. The final brackets will also be posted on the khsaa.org website after the show.
The St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA girls’ state tournament will be played March 8-12 at BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University for the second consecutive year.
The Whitaker Bank/KHSAA boys’ state tournament will take place March 15-19 at Rupp Arena in Lexington. This will be the 100th boys’ state basketball tournament conducted by the KHSAA.
Conner football player named MVP in senior all-star game
Conner senior running back Armand Jackson was named most valuable player in the Kentucky-Tennessee Border Bowl after scoring two touchdowns in the senior all-star game that was played last Saturday at Sevierville High School in Tennessee.
Kentucky won the game, 34-16, with Jackson scoring on two short runs. He was the leading scorer for the Kentucky team that got most of its points on returns and field goals.
The other local players on the Kentucky all-star roster were wide receivers Rondell Douglas of Boone County and Luke Vance of Simon Kenton, linebacker Derrick Barnes of Holy Cross, quarterback Cam Racke of Simon Kenton and defensive tackle Sander Roksvag of Cooper.