By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Cooper won the Northern Kentucky boys basketball freshman tournament for the second straight year and Beechwood repeated as the area’s junior varsity champion.
In the championship finals played Monday, Cooper edged Newport, 36-34, and Beechwood defeated Covington Catholic, 43-38, to retain their titles.
With seven seconds left in the freshman game, Newport got the rebound on a missed free throw. But Chris Rodriquez of Cooper stole the ball and passed it to a teammate who was able to run out the clock.
“We went into halftime with a four-point lead and the second half was a dogfight,” said Cooper coach Ashley Lutz. “We were able to get the lead as high as five points, but they were able to fight back and keep it close.”
The win gave Cooper a 22-2 record. The other players on the Jaguars roster are Austin Alexander, Isaac Brown, Joe Estrada, Malachi Ewell, Connor Fahey, Gavin Grasse, Jordan Hampton, Wyatt Hucker, Andy Johnson, Isaiah Johnson, Reagan Nichols, Landon Rankin, Lio Rivera and Harrison Young.
The leading scorers on Beechwood’s 18-6 junior varsity team this season were freshmen Mattox Kelly and Jack Sullivan, who had a team-high 11 points in the championship game against CovCath.
Beechwood coach Ross Hart said his team played much better against CovCath than earlier in the season when they fell behind 19-0 in a loss to the Colonels.
“This time around, we led 13-11 after the first quarter but found ourselves down two at halftime,” Hart said. “We climbed back to take a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter. We expanded it to 10 points and held on for the final score.”
The other players on Beechwood’s roster are Rhett Dawson, Quinn Eviston, Andrew Goodwin, Talen Linder, Mikey Murphy, Nazario Pangallo, Logan Smith and Cole Wethington.