By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Cooper boys’ basketball coach Tim Sullivan burned a few calories during his team’s 54-41 win over Holy Cross in the final first-round game of the 9th Region tournament on Thursday at BB&T Arena.
Sullivan was constantly on his feet during the game, yelling instructions and encouraging his team to play better, but it took a while for the Jaguars to respond to the energetic coach. The score was close until they went on a 10-2 run in the final six minutes to secure the victory.
“We feed off coach’s energy a lot,” said Cooper junior guard Adam Kunkel. “He’s our guy. We all trust in him and he knows how to get us going. He knows how to push our buttons if we’re kind of going through the motions out there.”
Kunkel scored six of his game-high 18 points during the final run that carried Cooper to its 12th straight win and lifted its record to 26-4. The Jaguars will play Newport (16-16) in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. Saturday. If they win that game, they’ll advance to the regional final for the first time.
With all of that on the line, Sullivan’s animated behavior on the sidelines during Thursday’s game was understandable.
“I just felt like tonight the guys needed a little something else (from me),” he said after the game. “Hey, it’s regional tournament time. There is no tomorrow (if you lose). If you think there is, that’s when tomorrow never comes, because you can get popped real fast.”
Holy Cross came into the first-round game with a 10-18 record and wasn’t ranked among the top teams in the 9th Region all season. But it looked like there could be an upset in the making when the Indians tied the score, 27-27, early in the third quarter on 3-point basket by senior guard Will Volpenhein.
Cooper responded with a 14-5 run to open up a 41-32 lead, but Holy Cross cut it to 44-39 early in the fourth quarter. That’s when the Jaguars launch their game-winning 10-2 run. They scored on five straight possessions while Holy Cross went 1-for-4 from the field and committed two turnovers.
“I thought we played well the first three quarters and then we ran out of gas,” Volpenhein said. “We started missing some shots and settling for shots, and that did it.”
The Jaguars shot 59 percent (19 of 32) from the field compared to the Indians’ 48.4 percent (16 of 33). Holy Cross had an 18-6 scoring advantage from behind the 3-point line, but Cooper countered that with a 14-3 advantage at the free throw line.
Volpenhein scored 15 points in his final game for Holy Cross. The game’s other double-figure scorer was Cooper senior guard Sean McNeil, who got seven of his 13 points in the third quarter.
Kunkel injured his left wrist in the first half of the game and had a large ice bag wrapped around it when he left the arena. He plans to get a medical scan to assess the injury, but he expects to play in Saturday’s regional semifinal game against Newport.
If he is back in the starting lineup, Kunkel said his team needs to get off to a better start than they did against Holy Cross. The Jaguars were behind, 12-7, at the end of the first quarter in that game.
“I’d for sure say that was a wake-up call for us,” Kunkel said. “We’ve got to be ready from the opening tip-off from now on. We can’t start another game like like that. If we do, we could get popped.”
HOLY CROSS 12 6 17 6 — 41
COOPER 7 19 15 13 — 54
HOLY CROSS (10-19): Houston 3 0 6, Williams 3 0 6, Schrand 3 1 9, Volpenhein 5 2 15, Meinze 1 0 2, Zimmerman 1 0 3. Totals: 16 3 41.
COOPER (26-4): Hendrix, 3 2 9, Kunkel 8 2 18, S. McNeil 6 0 13, C. MeNeil 1 2 4, Runion 1 7 9, Wasser 0 1 1. Totals: 19 14 54.
Three-pointers: HC — Volpenhein 3, Schrand 2, Zimmerman. C — Hendrix, S. McNeil.