By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
In his first 13 years as Newport boys basketball coach, Rod Snapp had an 0-9 record against Covington Catholic teams. Five of those losses came in 9th Region tournament games that ended the season for the Wildcats.
Snapp gets a chance to end that unwanted streak at 7 p.m. Saturday when Newport plays CovCath in the final game of the John Turner Classic on his team’s home court. The Wildcats are considered the favorite since they are No. 1 and the Colonels are No. 3 in the Northern Kentucky preseason coaches poll.
Newport boys basketball coach Rod Snapp has an 0-9 record against his team’s next opponent, CovCath, in the John Turner Classic on Saturday. (Photo by Bob Jackson)
The teams did not face each other the last three years. During the 2019-20 season, CovCath defeated Newport twice, including a 63-36 win in the first round of the 9th Region tournament.
Newport is off to an 4-0 start this season under Snapp, who has compiled a 221-177 record since becoming head coach in 2010-11. His record in 9th Region tournament games is 9-9 after winning the program’s first region championship since 2010 last March.
One of the four starters back from that team is Taylen Kinney, a sophomore guard averaging 19.2 points per game. He has scholarship offers from several NCAA Division I programs, including nationally ranked Illinois and Texas A&M.
Newport has good size with returning 6-foot-8 sophomore James Turner and 6-foot-4 senior DeShaun Jackson, who was an all-conference player for Cincinnati Taft last season. Jackson and returning senior guard Jabari Covington are averaging 12.8 and 9.2 points after four games that includes a victory over Richmond Heights, the two-time defending Ohio Class IV state champions.
CovCath (3-1) also has a transfer student in its starting lineup. Caden Miller is a 6-foot-9 senior center who was voted one of the top players in Arkansas last season. In the backcourt, the Colonels have senior Brady Hussey and sophomore Athens McGillis returning from last season’s 28-5 team that lost in the 9th Region semifinals.
CovCath guard Brady Hussey
On Tuesday, Hussey scored 19 points in a victory over St. Henry that raised his team-leading average to 17.2. The next two players on the Colonels’ scoring list are Miller (16.2) and McGillis (14.2). Miller is also averaging 13 rebounds and had 11 blocked shots in the first four games.
Admission to the John Turner Classic will be $10 at the door. The first four games will be Conner vs. Mariemont (Ohio) at noon, Campbell County vs. Newport Central Catholic at 1:45 p.m., Ryle vs. Central Hardin at 3:30 p.m. and Cooper vs. Cincinnati St. Xavier at 5:15 p.m. Each winning team will select an outstanding player to receive an award after their game.
Campbell County’s first-year head coach Brent Sowder will be trying to extend his team’s four-game winning streak against NewCath in their long-standing rivalry. To do that, the Camels (1-1) will have to contain senior Caleb Eaglin, who had a 19.3 scoring average for the Thoroughbreds (2-2) going into Thursday’s game.
Ryle (4-1) won its first four games behind a balanced scoring attack led by four players with double-figure scoring averages — junior Landon Lorms (20.0), seniors Evan Smith (11.5) and Logan Verax (10.5) and sophomore Anthony Coppola (10.0) — before losing to Lloyd on Thursday.
Cooper (1-2) has been waiting for doctors to give 6-foot-6 senior forward Shaun Pouncy permission to play in games. Last season, Pouncy posted a double-double in points and rebounds in two district playoff wins before suffering a knee injury that required surgery in the first round of the 9th Region tournament.
Local runners among top finishers in multi-state cross country meets
Two of the top boys high school cross country runners in Northern Kentucky at the end of the season were among the top finishers in multi-state meets during the month of November.
Will Sheets
Covington Catholic junior Will Sheets placed 11th in a field of 260 high school runners from nine states at the Nike Southeast Regional in Cary, N.C. He was the top finisher from Kentucky and recorded a personal-best time of 14 minutes, 58 seconds on the 5,000-meter course.
At the Foot Locker South Regional on Nov. 25 in Charlotte, N.C., Ryle senior Tiger Bartlett completed the 5,000-meter race in 15 minutes, 11 seconds to finish 13th out of 211 runners from 12 states. The only Kentucky finisher ahead of him was Thomas Nelson junior Riku Sugie, who placed second in 14:54 to qualify for the national meet on Saturday.
At the Kentucky high school state championship meet in October, Bartlett placed 10th in Class 3A and Sheets finished third in Class 2A to lead CovCath to the team title. Another member of the CovCath team, senior Michael Zachella, was named Kentucky Student-Athlete of the Year in boys cross country.
Ryle graduate is starting forward on unbeaten women’s college team
Ryle graduate Lauren Schwartz is a starting forward on the University of Washington women’s basketball team that pushed its perfect record to 9-0 with a 55-50 win over Montana State on Tuesday.
Lauren Schwartz
Schwartz is averaging 11.8 points and 2.8 rebounds for the Huskies, who won their first eight games by double-digit margins. The 5-foot-11 senior is shooting 51.3 percent (40 of 78) from the field with a team-high 14 3-points goals and 92.3 percent (12 of 13) at the free throw line. She made every foul shot she took in the first eight games.
Three of her team’s victories came during the Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Hawaii during the last week of November. Schwartz was named the tournament’s most valuable player for scoring a team-high 41 points in three games and shooting 50.6 percent (16 of 28) from the field with five treys.
Ryle won the 2019 girls state tournament when Schwartz was a senior. She started her college career at Rice University and transferred after her freshman season to remain with coach Tina Langley, who was hired by Washington. The senior has started in every one of the Huskies’ 66 games over the last three seasons.
