By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
The ghosts of Boone County tournament basketball past had to be loving it at Conner’s John Crigler Gymnasium Wednesday.
Conner’s Finn Loudon on a reverse spin scoring more against Cooper’s Andy Johnson. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
Those great original programs like Hebron and Burlington and New Haven. Places where they barely had a stop light in town but they all had gyms. And game.
Then along came the Airport. And the Mall. And all the people. And the little schools were gone. Boone County came first with consolidation in 1955. Then Conner. Union would get Ryle and Cooper – two of the state’s largest schools — in a town once not big enough for one.
And here on Bill Warfield Court, an old school guy who brought hoops to Hebron’s Conner, it was like old times only with bigger crowds. And four great pep bands. And color-coded student cheering sections.
And basketball that mattered. In most districts in Kentucky, any of these four teams could count on advancing to the region with both finalists moving on. Win 18 regular-season games as Boone County and Ryle did and you can pretty much be seeded into next week.
Win 11 against that schedule like a young Conner team did and you would have a good shot at playing next week. “Conner’s probably the best fourt-seed in the state,” Cooper Coach Tim Sullivan said of the host Cougars who start a freshman, two sophomores, a junior and just one senior.
“It’s Boone County, District 33,” Sullivan said with a shake of his head. “It’s nerve-wracking.” And explains those dark circles under his eyes among other things. One misstep on this night and it’s over. Which explains why people were parking a half-mile away with some 3,000 or so here and fired-up for each game.
Cooper’s Jaiden Combs drives into a pair of Conner defenders, Brady Bushman and Ben Fay. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
COOPER’S COUGARS ADVANCE, DEFENSE THE DIFFERENCE
Cooper won its 12th game in the last 13 the way the Cougars (21-8) usually do, with a grind-‘em-down, unyielding man-to-man defense against a new-look Conner team replacing last year’s veteran bunch for Matt Otte.
Although the favored Jaguars weren’t the only ones playing defense in this one. Sullivan called it “that scrappy Conner 2-3 zone,” which would guarantee Cooper would miss some shots over it. But the problem with playing a zone is the defenders don’t have a man to block out.
“That was the key for us,” Sullivan said, after his team’s 53-39 victory. “When you have athletes like we do, you have to stay locked in.” And locked onto the edge Cooper had: “One of the key areas was getting our guys to go to the glass – we outrebounded them 35-12.”
Conner really didn’t have anyone to handle 6-foot-6 Coug Shaun Pouncy, whose 10 first-half points got Cooper out to a 28-20 halftime edge against a Conner team driven by the 12 first-half points from slick sophomore Finn Louden, who will be tough to handle as he fills out the next couple of years.
“He’s really good,” Sullivan said of Louden, who finished with 15 points, “he’s hard to handle.”
Cooper’s Jaiden Combs has plenty of room on this layup against Conner’s Ben Fay. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
But a two-point third quarter pretty much sealed Conner’s fate, as “our depth” became a factor in the second half, Sullivan said. “We just stayed in front of them, one on one.” And “limited them to three of 15 from three-point range.
And now they’ll be at NKU next week, one of the Ninth Region’s three ranked teams – along with Newport and Covington Catholic — with the best chance to go downstate.
Especially now that 6-4 junior Andy Johnson is back from his fractured wrist and scoring at 16.0 points a game for the five regular-season games he’s played this season. Johnson scored nine in this game and you could tell he was a bit frustrated. “He wants to be perfect,” Sullivan said.
One player who doesn’t worry about being perfect is 6-3 junior Jaiden Combs, the Ninth Region’s Defensive Player of the Year. “I just go out and take the best offensive player,” the Campbell County transfer said. And then he tries to take the ball away whenever he can.
Like the one time he dove and swiped the ball as he was sliding across the floor into the Cooper bench, taking the ball in one hand and leading the cheering bench with the other.
“My adrenaline’s crazy,” Combs said. “My mom my whole life said defense wins games.”
It does for Cooper, as the Jaguars head on to Friday’s 33rd District championship game (7 p.m.) that will be the battle for Union against crosstown rival Ryle, a 57-52 winner Jan. 12 at Ryle.
“We want to go in (to the regional) as champions,” Sullivan said.
SCORING SUMMARY
CONNER 12 8 2 17–39
COOPER 18 10 7 17–53
CONNER: (11-18); Huff 2 0 1 5, Marks 0 0 1 1, Bushman 0 0 0 0, Abousaleh 1 0 1 3, Haynes 1 0 0 2, F. Louden 6 2 1 15, T. Warner 1 1 2 5, Fay 1 0 0 2, L. Warner 2 0 0 4, Romero 1 0 0 2; TOTALS: 15 3 6 39
COOPER: (21-8): Blackburn 0 0 0 0, Brown 1 0 0 2, Combs 5 0 1 11, Rodriguez 1 0 0 2, Murphy 0 0 0 0, I. Johnson 2 0 0 4, A. Johnson 3 1 2 9, Rondon 5 1 2 13, Hampton 0 0 0 0, S. Pouncy 5 0 2 12; TOTALS 22 2 7 53.
RYLE GETS THE LAST SHOT AS QB1 KNOCKS IT DOWN
Boone County’s Thomas Williams with a football move against a pair of Ryle defenders. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
Ryle Coach Nick Dorning said he’s had this vision for his Raiders team all season. “I wanted us to be on that school bus heading down I-75 to NKU,” for next week’s Ninth Region tournament. The last time the Raiders made it to the regional, during Covid three years ago, it was played at Covington Holmes.
So watch out NKU, here comes Ryle (19-10). But after roaring out ahead 17-9 after one quarter, 28-22 at halftime and holding on for dear life, leading 37-36 after three quarters, the Raiders hit a flat spot against Boone County. Dead in the water for most of the final quarter.
Down 46-39 with three minutes left as Boone’s senior trio of Mason Hall (14 points), Thomas Williams (11) and Maddox Jones (8) shot the veteran Rebels of Ninth Region Coach of the Year Nate Browning back in front.
And then Dorning got them going, senior Logan Verax said. “He called a play and I hit a three.” And it was 46-42, stopping a 35-17 Rebel run but just 1:54 left but plenty of scrap left in the Raiders who found a way to get four more and tie it at 46.
Ryle’s Jonathan DeGroff extends to ge a shot off against Boone’s Maddox Jones. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
“We tell our kids to be tough, to be elite,” Dorning said. “You can overcome it, that seven-point lead.” And so they did.
Williams untied things with a free throw with 55.9 seconds left. And then Verax, the man his teammates call QB1 for his football heroics, Dorning said, did it again.
“I caught it, I shot it,” Logan said of the three-pointer from the left corner with 30 seconds left. “And then I realized what it meant,” he said, to his delirious Ryle teammates and the fans, leading 49-47.
“I think his football carries over a lot,” Dorning said. “His teammates love him . . . he’s a leader.” And even more, on this night with a game-high 17 points, a long-range shooter for the win.
Only not before one more screeching moment when Williams drove the lane, stopped and put up a soft 12-footer that caressed the rim, dropped down into the net for a split-second and then popped up and rolled off the other side as the noise from both sets of fans seemed to push the ball one way and then the other.
And nothing but good will for the folks from Boone County in this backyard rivalry where everybody knows everybody. “I went to school with half those Boone guys at Ockerman,” Verax said.
As for Dorning, he couldn’t say enough for the hosts from Conner and AD Jim Hicks, the tournament manager who kept checking with him to see if there was anything they could do for him and his team.
“And a shout out to Nate (Browning),” Dorning said with praise for the job he’s done with the 18-9 Rebels this season.
SCORING SUMMARY
BOONE COUNTY 9 13 14 11—47
RYLE 17 11 9 12—49
BOONE COUNTY (18-10); Williams 4 0 3 11, I. Burks 0 0 0 0, Moore 1 0 2 4, Bodkin 4 0 0 8, Hall 5 4 0 14, Jones 4 0 0 8, McLos 1 0 0 2; TOTALS: 19 4 5 47.
RYLE (19-10): Lorms 4 1 0 9, Coppola 2 1 0 5, L. Verax 6 3 2 17, E. Smith 2 0 2 6, Reynolds 1 0 1 3, DeGroff 4 0 1 9; TOTALS: 19 5 6 49.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
