By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
With football behind us, it’s time for an all-out look at the basketball that’s coming our way here.
And it’s also time to get caught up on how Newport’s Wildcats, for starters, made Kentucky proud at the Ohio Hoops Classic’s opening night Friday at the Mason Arena with a 74-69 win over Richmond Heights, Ohio.
No surprise, you say, isn’t Newport supposed to be good? Well yes, but this good? Richmond Heights, from suburban Cleveland, was coming in with a whole host of big-time prospects and a 49-game winning streak that has produced back-to-back Class IV Ohio State championships.
So that five-point win, led by the 27 points of Newport’s own big-time prospect, Taylen Kinney, looks pretty darn good. After all, Richmond Heights had four prospects coveted by Power Five programs, more than the entire Ninth Region in most years.
Five-star T.J. Crumble, a 6-foot-8 sophomore center, led Richmond Heights with 22 points. He has offers from Ohio State, Cincinnati, Texas A&M, LSU, Missouri and Illinois, among others. And three junior guards are big-time recruits: 6-4 Dorian Jones with offers from Ohio State, UC, Xavier, Dayton, Syracuse and Michigan State; 5-11 De’Erick Barber, who is being sought by Arizona State, Toledo, Kent State and Duquesne; and 6-3 Demarris Winters, with offers from Arizona State, Akron, Kent State and Robert Morris.
Terrific job by Rod Snapp’s Newport guys to end the Ohio teams’ two-year win streak. And they did so with a terrific shooting night hitting on 27 of 44 from the field (61.4 percent) including seven of 12 (58.3 percent) from three-point range. The hot shooting continued at the free throw line with Newport cashing in on 13 of 16 there (81.2 percent).
Jabari Covington joined Kinney, who has been offered by Ohio State, Xavier, UC and Louisville, with 14 points while 6-8 sophomore James Turner added 12 points and a team-high six rebounds, tying him with DeShaun Jackson for the 2-0 Wildcats. Turner was described in the Hoops Classic program as “a player with multiple mid-major offers” while both Covington and Jackson were described as “D-2 players.”
Newport returns home to host the surprise team in the Ninth Region, Boone County’s 3-0 Rebels, Tuesday at 7:30. Should be an interesting matchup the way Nathan Browning’s Rebels, 5-20 last year, have started hot, beating Highlands 82-60 and Lexington Tates Creek, 68-60, on the road. After the first two games, Mason Hall leads Boone with 18.3 points a game with Maddox Jones (15.0), Elijah Bodkin (13.3) and Thomas Williams (12.3) all in double figures.
Two other Ninth Region teams participated in the Ohio Valley Hoops Classic with Lloyd Memorial splitting in two games – beating Goshen (Ohio) 67-49 Sunday after losing to Sycamore (Ohio) 57-42 and 6-9 Purdue-commit Raleigh Burgess in a matchup of highly recruited big men with Lloyd’s EJ Walker attracting similar major college interest.
Cooper fell to 1-1 after losing to a Delaware (Ohio) Hayes team with a pair of Division I guard prospects, 60-54, in overtime at the Classic. The Jags had a tough-shooting 19-of-49 game (38.8 percent) with Andy Johnson leading the way with 20 points. Evan Blackburn added 11 while Yamil Rondon and Chris Rodriguez had nine each.
It doesn’t get any easier for Cooper against Ohio teams as the Jags play at Cincinnati Elder Tuesday (7:30 p.m.) and then face Cincinnati St. Xavier in the John Turner Classic at Newport Saturday (5:15).
IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL, the NKU men improved to 5-3 (and 2-0 in the Horizon League) with a Marques Warrick-led 71-55 romp at IUPUI thanks to a 45-30 second-half run. Warrick led Northern with 24 points, knocking down three of four from three-point range. And as is often the case, Sam Vinson was his sidekick with 13 points while 6-8 Green Bay transfer Cade Meyer provided 12 points off the bench.
Two big edges in the game for NKU: the Norse forced 22 turnovers and hit on 18 of 29 from the field in the second half. The IUPUI game concludes the December portion of the conference schedule for NKU, which doesn’t play another Horizon game until Dec. 29 at Purdue Ft. Wayne. But the Norse are back on the road at Illinois State Wednesday.
Also 5-3 are the Thomas More Saints, but after dropping a home conference game to a hot-shooting Cedarville team, 89-74, Saturday. Cedarville knocked down 33 of 63 shots (55.6 percent) against a TMU team playing without Reid Jolly, the 6-5 grad student and team leader. In his absence, point guard Jacob Jones led the way with 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Kyle Ross added 10 points, Casey George nine and Nathan Dudukovich eight.
Thomas More hosts Ashland next in a G-MAC game Saturday (3 p.m.) at the Connor Center.
With an 80-50 win over Cedarville, the TMU women improved to 3-3 (1-1 in the G-MAC) Saturday. Freshman Rylee Leonard from Eastern Brown (Ohio) led TMU with a career-high 28 points on eight-of-10 shooting from the field and eight-of-nine from the line. Maggie Jones added 14 – with four three-pointers — as nine Saints in all scored. Rylee Turner’s seven rebounds led TMU.
TMU will host Malone at 6 p.m. Thursday in a G-MAC game at the Connor Center.
The NKU women fell to 1-5 with a 72-60 home Horizon loss to Cleveland State, their fifth straight, Saturday and life doesn’t get any easier for the Norse as they head off on the road to Big Ten Illinois Wednesday.
Allison Bayse led NKU with 18 points. Carter McCray added 15.