By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Scott Ruthsatz was pleased with the trip to Walton-Verona for his top-ranked Ninth Region Colonels Tuesday, but not just for that final 81-69 margin on the scoreboard against an Eighth Region dark horse Bearcat team that can score the basketball.
He was pleased at how his senior big man, 6-foot-9 Caden Miller, became a 1,000-point scorer on a dunk for his 14th point of the game, barely 30 seconds into the second quarter. So much so that Ruthsatz emerged from the locker room after the game with his phone to take a photo of Miller, and his mother, Danielle, with the game ball, promising to send them a copy.
“Obviously, it was on my mind,” said Miller, whose scoring numbers were combined with his previous years at Bentonville, Ark., before his transfer to CovCath for his senior season. “But the main point was getting the win.”
Not that that seemed much in doubt after a 52-point first half from the fast-moving, quick-handed, hot-shooting Colonels. Twenty of those points came from an offensively aggressive Miller, who scored 10 on two-handed dunks, a couple of them on balls he pulled out of scrums on the floor and immediately rose up for a stuff.
“That might be the most I’ve had in a row,” he said of the recent encouragement he’s been getting from CovCath assistant Joe Fredrick to just rise up and flush the basketball. “I’ve definitely been working on it. I wish I’d come here sooner, to play with these guys.”
Walton-Verona 1,000-point scorer Aaron Gutman with two of his 19 team-high points for the Bearcats (Bob Jackson photo)
But despite that, Miller’s 22-point, 10-of-13 shooting, nine-rebound performance might not have been the most outstanding of the night for CovCath. Sophomore guard Cash Harney, having worked out the football muscles that led him to five interceptions in the fall as a safety, topped Miller with a 29-point effort on 11-of-17 shooting with a pair of three-pointers, four assists and four steals.
To envision Harney, he’s Evan Ipsaro (last year’s CovCath All-State point guard now starting for Miami of Ohio) with a newly developed three-point shot. He’s explosive, physical, and gets to the glass as he flies by defenders whose last look at him is that of his faux-hawk (modified mohawk) haircut.
Harney’s development changes the look of this guard-dominated Colonel team with his recent scoring and shooting. “You win with guards,” said Ruthsatz, who plays a pair of point guards and a pair of wings with sophomores Athens McGillis (19 points on eight-of-15 shooting with three three’s) and Nolan Ruthsatz with senior Brady Hussey (nine points).
“I watched Evan since he transferred to CovCath,” Harney says, going back four years. He liked Ipsaro’s game. “Cash has kind of taken over that role,” Ruthsatz said.
As for the shooting, he’s been working with his dad every day after practice to get that perimeter jumper going, Cash says. “I’ve improved it a lot the last couple of weeks,” he said. “And with Caden in there, it just makes it easier for the guards.”
CovCath’s Cash Harney splits a pair of Walton-Verona defender, Julian Dixon and Landon Bach on his way to a game0high 29 points. (Bob Jackson photo)
CovCath’s guards made it easier on themselves with 10 steals on the way to a 73-48 lead with a minute left in the third quarter. “Hands,” was the one-word call-out from the CovCath bench as the Colonels constantly picked the Bearcats’ pockets or got into the passing lanes.
But if CovCath’s earlier 17-2 run was impressive, so was a never-say-die 17-2 response by the hot-shooting Bearcats who hit eight three’s and 15 of 18 free throws to close to with 10 twice.
Walton-Verona also had its own 1,000-point scorer in savvy 6-6 junior Aaron Gutman, whose 19 points – inside and out — led the Bearcats, ranked fourth in the Eighth Region. And in their comeback, they displayed some of that good-hands defense, taking advantage of 14 CovCath turnovers.
Sounding a bit like Oprah Winfrey in one of those shows where she gave away free cars: “You won a car, you won a car, . . . “ Ruthsatz found himself during one timeout looking his seated starters in the eye while saying to each of them: “You turned it over, you turned it over, you turned it over . . .”
Then he took some of the blame: “I probably slowed it up a bit too much for them,” after that 52-point first half with 73 points after three quarters.
SCORING SUMMARY
COVCATH: (14-4) 22 30 21 8—81
WALTON-VERONA (14-6) 13 26 14 16—69
COVCATH: McGillis 8/15 5/10 3/5 0/0 19, Harney 11/17 9/13 2/4 5/5 29, Miller C 10/13 10/13 0/0 2/2 22, Jake Stewart 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Johnson 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0, Wermuth 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Bradshaw 1/2 1/2 0/0 0/0 2, Hussey 3/8 2/6 1/2 2/2 9, Ruthsatz 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0: TOTALS: 33/57 27/46 6/11 9/9 81
WALTON-VERONA: Montgomery 2/5 0/0 2/5 0/0 6, Smith 3/6 3/3 0/3 4/4 10, Hester 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Bach 5/9 2/4 3/5 0/0 13, Kerns 1/3 0/1 1/2 0/0 3, Dixon 6/10 6/8 0/2 6/6 18, Gutman 6/15 4/10 2/5 5/8 19: TOTALS: 23/48 15/26 8/22 15/18 69
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter (formerly X) @dweber3440.
Left: CovCath 1,000-point scorer Caden Miller puts down this dunk with emphasis against Walton-Verona; Right: CovCath sophomore guard Cash Harney emerging as the Colonels’ offensive leader (Bob Jackson photos)
