By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
NBA Hall of Fame announcer Ralph Lawler had his famous “Lawler’s Law” that he pronounced during every LA Clippers game: “First team to 100 wins, it’s Lawler’s Law,” Ralph would say.
The photographers along the court at the Newport-Cooper game came up with their own version at halftime Thursday in the 19-14 game: “First team to 30 points wins,” was the consensus.
That did, actually, turn out to be on the money. Newport’s Wildcats, on their way to their 20th win, got there first – barely. On the initial score of the fourth quarter, Newport’s 6-foot-6 freshman Patrick Turner put a follow-up rebound back in for a 30-28 Wildcat edge.
Thank goodness for follows on missed shots. Without them, neither team would have hit 30 points. This was not a night for halfcourt offenses.
But flip that coin. The defenses were that good, in as scrappy a game from two teams with two raucous fans groups figuring out that this one was going to come down to defense.
The talk among the Newport players was about Cooper and how well “they change their defenses,” and how tough that made it to run their offense.
Not that the offenses helped themselves here. Too many high-degree-of-difficulty shots by Newport’s high-flying athletes against Cooper’s hang-tough kids who would just not allow any gimmes.
Too many point-blank misses by a Cooper team without a big man against an athletic Newport team that was credited with eight blocks to Cooper’s none.
Just a look at the halftime score, that wouldn’t have equaled a quarter in Wednesday night’s Holy Cross-Newport Central Catholic game on the other side of town.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. Newport, despite its 20-6 record and its RPI ranking second in the Ninth Region, behind only Covington Catholic, starts two freshmen, a sophomore and a junior.
As for Cooper, now 12-11 with five single-digit losses, “we’re still trying to figure out who we are,” Coach Tim Sullivan said after the loss of big man Caleb Brooks to an ACL in December.
“You can’t replace a leader like that, especially one who’s 6-9,” Sullivan said. Especially one who was averaging 11.3 points and 6.6 rebounds a game in his first six games.
But it wasn’t for lack of trying, especially from sophomore guard Yamil Rondon, whose game-high 16 points came on one determined drive after another into that strong Newport front line.
“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the score,” Newport Coach Rod Snapp said. “We needed a game like this, a game where you had to make tough decisions, had to make the right decisions.”
And ultimately, make some big baskets. After the teams traded improbable 9-0 runs at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth, this was still a one-point game, 35-34, with Newport on top and just 2:40 left.
That’s when freshman guard Taylen Kinney, who would finish with 11 points, hit a nice and easy three-pointer followed by a flying layup, both out of the halfcourt offense, for a 40-34 edge and just over two minutes left.
Which was the signal for Rondon to take over, scoring eight points – on a drive with a foul for three, then a lefty layup, then a jumper in the lane and finally a steal that had him going one on three and scoring while fouled and hitting the free throw to tie it at 42 with 48.8 seconds left.
When Newport threw the ball into the stands, Cooper had the chance the Jaguars had been fighting for with 34 seconds left. And then it didn’t thanks to a trap by Newport’s Turner and DeShawn Anderson, with Turner getting the ball, taking a dribble and spotting Anderson heading for the hoop.
“I just took off,” Anderson said. And Turner, who hasn’t had a dunk in two games, his longest dunk-less streak this season, got it to him for the go-ahead layup with 18.2 seconds left.
He said he’ll trade the game-winning assist for a dunk any day.
But Cooper still had a shot. Until it didn’t. And Sullivan had to call a timeout with 4.8 seconds left when the Jags couldn’t get the offensive set they were looking for. After the timeout, there was a hurried three from not that far past the midcourt line that Newport’s Kinney got his fingertips on, his fourth block of the night.
“We’ve got to have two more guys,” Snapp said of a lineup with just five scorers with senior Marquez Miller’s 12 points leading the way for the Wildcats.
Both coaches looked at this game as the kind of high-pressure end-of-the-season challenge that will be so important in a couple of weeks when it’s tournament time.
If Newport can find a way to get good shots — and a couple of guys off the bench. And if Cooper can find a way to develop that little man mentality and personality.
BOX SCORE
COOPER 3 11 14 14—42
NEWPORT 10 9 9 16—44
COOPER (12-11): Ajaezu 0-0-0-0, 1-0-0-2, A. Johnson 0-0-0-0, Rondon 6-1-3-16, Lutz 3-2-1-9, Ollier 2-2-0-6, Alexander 3-0-0-6, Schilling 1-1-0-3, TOTALS: 16-6-4-42.
NEWPORT (20-6): Kinney 3-1-4-11, Anderson 3-1-0-7, Covington 2-0-2-6, Turner 4-0-0-8, Miller 4-0-4-12, Silverton 0-0-0-0, TOTALS: 16-2-10-44.