By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
In its last three games, the Cooper girls basketball team was outscored 15-5, 24-13 and 19-9 at the free throw line. The two-time defending 9th Region champions lost each one to even its record at 3-3.
This season, there’s a new rule in high school basketball regarding free throws, but Cooper coach Justin Holthaus said that had little to do with the Jaguars’ first three-game losing streak since he took charge of the team in 2020.
“I don’t know that I would necessarily say the new free throw rule has cost us games or not,” Holthaus said. “I just know it’s going to be in the back of every coach’s head, especially in late close-game situations.”
Cooper girls basketball coach Justin Holthaus
Under the new rule, a team gets to shoot two free throws after five common fouls in each quarter. The old rule put a team in a 1-and-1 bonus free throw situation after seven fouls in each half.
Holthaus said resetting team foul totals after each quarter seems to make the game go faster. But the new rule did make him do something different when his team was behind in the final seconds of a 56-51 loss to Purcell Marian at home on Tuesday.
“I played more in the last 30 seconds to try and get a tie-up and steal than go right for a foul,” he said. “In the past, when you knew it’s a 1-and-1 bonus situation, you were going to foul. But it’s two shots now, so I wanted to play for the steal instead of foul.”
Cooper’s other two losses came on the road to Louisville Sacred Heart, 54-42, and Montgomery County, 64-55. Those two teams took a total of 67 fouls shots compared to 18 for the Jaguars.
Holthaus said those unbalanced stats were more a matter of his players not adjusting to officials in other parts of the state.
“When we went to Sacred Heart, it was a super physical game for just about all four quarters and their kids were more willing to get to the rim and draw some contact so they were getting to the line a little more,” Holthaus said.
“And that was the same thing against Montgomery County,” he added. “It was one of those things where their kids were getting to the rim and we were getting (fouls) rung up every time. We had four of our kids foul out versus Montgomery County. Their kids were really aggressive and made it just a tough environment to play in.”
After home games on Friday and Saturday, the Jaguars will play four games on the road in the Queen of the Commonwealth tournament at Bullitt East. Officials from different regions will be calling all of those games.
“We’ve always told our kids you’ve got to adjust to the officiating,” Holthaus said. “If they’re going to be tight and every little hand check is going to be a call, we’ve got to be smart enough to adjust to that officiating because they’re not going to adjust to you.”
Cross country coaches select seniors for Runner of the Year awards
Tiger Bartlett and Maddie Strong were named Runners of the Year in boys and girls cross country by Northern Kentucky coaches after they both finished their high school careers with impressive senior seasons.
As the lead runner for the Ryle boys team, Bartlett posted the state’s fastest 5,000-meter time of the season (14:51.70) in a seventh-place finish at the Great American XC Festival on Oct. 6 in North Carolina. Two weeks later, he won the Class 3A Region 5 meet in 15:41 and then placed 10th in the state meet.
Tiger Bartlett
Maddie Strong
Strong, the Class 2A girls state champion in 2022, moved up to Class 3A this year with her Scott team. She ended up winning the Class 3A Region 5 race in 19:15 and placing fifth in the large school state meet with a time of 18:35. She was the only local girl to break the 19-minute mark in any of the three classes at the state meet.
Bartlett and Strong were both recruited by the University of Cincinnati and will begin competing in cross country and track on the NCAA Division I level next year.
Tricia Sturgeon of Beechwood was named Coach of the Year in girls cross country. Her team took the first-place trophy in every meet they entered this season, including the Class 1A region and state meets.
The co-winners of the boys Coach of the Year were Chris Davis of Brossart and Eric Vanlaningham of Cooper. Brossart won its first Class 1A boys state title since 2014 and Cooper placed second in Class 3A.
ALL-NORTHERN KENTUCKY CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS
GIRLS – Stella Aschermann (Ryle), Allie Atchley (Simon Kenton), Alexandra Burg (Notre Dame), Stella Carpenter (Ryle), Maggie Durrett (Holy Cross), Olivia Holbrook (Campbell County), Allison Kopser (Ryle), Katherine McKee (Campbell County), Lily Parke (Beechwood), Maddie Strong (Scott), Nora Wilke (Beechwood).
Runner of the Year – Maddie Strong (Scott)
Coach of the Year – Tricia Sturgeon (Beechwood)
Sportsmanship Award – Charlotte Cunningham (Boone County)
BOYS – Tiger Bartlett (Ryle), Joey Carroll (Conner), Jonathan Christopher (Campbell County), Salah Farah (Cooper), Lincoln Herald (Grant County), Nathan Hopper (Conner), Joe Mayer (CovCath), Nathan Ruth (Brossart), Will Sheets (CovCath), Paul Vanlaningham (Cooper), Samson Weldemichael (Beechwood).
Runner of the Year – Tiger Bartlett (Ryle)
Coaches of the Year – Chris Davis (Brossart), Eric Vanlaningham (Cooper)
Sportsmanship Award – Paul Vanlaningham (Cooper)
NKU Hall of Fame inductees were also successful on high school level
Two former basketball players who were inducted into the Northern Kentucky University Hall of Fame last Saturday made their mark in 9th Region high school basketball before and after their college careers with the Norse.
Kevin Listerman
Christie McDonald
Christie Freppon-McDonald played on Newport Central Catholic girls basketball teams that competed in four consecutive 9th Region tournaments from 1984-87.
Kevin Listerman was a point guard on Covington Catholic teams that made it to the 9th Region boys finals in 1994 and 1995.
After they graduated from NKU with degrees in education, both of them went on to become teachers and successful 9th Region high school basketball coaches.
McDonald returned to NewCath and won more than 200 games as girls head coach from 1996-2008. Listerman has also surpassed the 200 mark in career wins with most of them coming over the last 11 years as the boys head coach at Highlands.
Three years ago, Highlands won its first “Sweet 16” boys state tournament championship under Listerman. McDonald had two NewCath teams that reached the finals of the Kentucky All “A” Classic state tournament in 2001 and 2007. She also had two teams that won 9th Region post-season tournaments in 2003 and 2005.
