By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
It hasn’t been easy. Not this tournament and not all season.
Which is exactly how Rod Snapp and his Newport Wildcats wanted it.
The scoreboard says it all for the All ‘A’ Classic for hometeam Newport over Evangel Christian. (Photo by Bob Jackson/NKyTribune)
And that’s exactly how things turned out for a team that’s gone everywhere and played everybody from the end of last season through Sunday, when Newport won the Kentucky All “A” Classic with a 69-62 win over defending champion Louisville Evangel Christian in overtime.
And gave Northern Kentucky’s Ninth Region a two-for-two day Sunday with a pair of championships.
“It just shows how strong our area is,” Snapp said. “There are a total of 120 All “A” schools in the state.
And the two best come from Northern Kentucky. “These guys are special,” Snapp said on his drive home from Corbin after his team’s third close win in four games this week. “This is cool.”
For the moment, Newport Coach Road Snapp is not all that happy with the way things are going for his Wildcats. (Photo by Bob Jackson/NKyTribune)
And not just the basketball part of it. “We’re trying to change the culture,” Snapp said, and the perception. “Newport gets put into the news and not always for good reasons.”
This basketball team, now 21-3, is the good news. “We discussed that,” Snapp said, “about what this does for the community and those fans who have always been there for us and drove nearly three hours in bad weather to these games.”
And yeah, as nice as the All “A” Classic championship is, and beating a team ranked No. 2 overall in Kentucky in Lyon County Saturday, and Top 10 Evangel Christian Sunday, “I really wanted to win the King of the Bluegrass, to see a Newport jersey on the wall at Fairdale High School,” Snapp said.
Newport’s Jabari Covington on his way to a 21-point game. (Photo by Bob Jackson/NKyTribune)
But the Wildcats lost 48-46 to No. 1 Great Crossing there and in overtime to No. 4 Louisville Trinity a month ago in Louisville at the KOB. But not this week in Corbin although three of their wins were by a total of 10 points – 45-42 over Lexington Sayre, two points over Lyon County (58-56) and seven Sunday.
“It’s really neat that it happened for them,” Snapp said. “This was one of our goals. It’s special for sure. And it’s really neat that it’s happened for them.”
Just a good group of kids, Snapp said, and totally in keeping with their character that they moved up their pre-game schedule Sunday so they could be here to cheer Holy Cross on. Which they did. “That’s just something they do. Of course, we wanted them to win.”
“We were rooting for them all week, too,” said Holy Cross Coach Ted Arlinghaus. “We really appreciated them doing that for us.”
Newport 6-foot-7 sophomore James Turner had a breakout 16-point game. (Photo by Bob Jackson/NKyTribune
What Rodd Snapp appreciated was the way senior guard Jabari Covington came out and bounced back with a terrific 21-point effort to lead the Wildcats. “He was struggling to start but we stayed positive with him,” Snapp said of the coaching staff. “We’re all big fans of his game.”
And then there was 6-foot-7 sophomore James Turner, who was “a monster” rebounding against Lyon County with 11 but having trouble to get the ball to go down for him. But not against Evangel when Turner registered 16 points. “The last few days we’ve been telling him he’s got to play with a high motor, to play with that competitive fire” to be the college prospect he wants to be. Sunday he did, going against Evangel’s 6-8 and 6-9 frontline guys.
Almost no need to mention sophomore guard Kinney, who scored 18 points despite re-injuring his sprained left ankle Saturday. They knew he’d find a way to go as he, Covington and Turner joined MVP Deshaun Jackson, who hit the big game-winner against Lyon County and had nine points Sunday, on the all-tournament team.
Despite playing on a bad ankle, he figured was no better than 60 percent strength, Newport’s Taylen Kinney managed to get 19 points against Evangel Christian. (Photo by Bob Jackson/NKyTribune)
And now it’s back home to the “three-headed monster” of the Ninth Region with Cooper and Covington Catholic joining Newport for the fight to go downstate to the Sweet 16. Newport meets Newport Central Catholic Feb. 7 in a district seeding game at home, then faces Conner (Feb. 9) also at home and on Feb. 13, Newport is in a region preview showdown at Cooper.
“They’re tough,” Snapp said of the Jaguars. But so is his team.
And in a weird footnote to the game, the usually reliable KHSAA website has Evangel Christian the game-winner with the scores reversed and it’s posted that way on both teams’ score sites although the All “A” Classic site has it correct but without posting the complete summary of the game.
One stat of note: Newport outscored Evangel by an incredible 27-3 from the free throw line.
SCORING SUMMARY
NEWPORT 14 13 11 16 15—69
EVANGEL CHRISTIAN 9 17 7 21 8—62
NEWPORT (21-3): Covington 22, Kinney 18, Turner 16, Jackson 9, Starks 4; TOTAL: 69.
EVANGEL CHRISTIAN (17-5): Tilley 28, Doerr 14, White 9, Mukadi 4, Chitapa 4, Trice 2, Djema 1: TOTAL: 62.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @dweber3440.
The three-headed monster you refer to in Cooper Covington Catholic and Newport is actually a four-headed monster as you will find with Lloyd Memorial added as the fourth monster