By Dan Weber
NKyTribune reporter
LEXINGTON – It doesn’t often happen like this. A guaranteed Sweet 16 winner for Northern Kentucky.
Guaranteed.
In fact, it’s never happened like this – two teams from the same conference, heck the same county – facing off in a neighborhood rivalry removed to Rupp Arena for a state tournament showdown.
There’s only one problem with the guaranteed winner scenario: There’s a guaranteed loser, as well.
Large and loud Campbell County crowd could not have enjoyed themselves more at Rupp Arena.(Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
Thursday night, that was not the team most thought it would be. It was the tested team that had played everyone and everywhere it could find challenges with a statewide All “A” Classic Championship – and 24 straight wins — already to its name.
Nope, the Northern Kentucky team that came out poised, confident, loose, full of swag with nothing to lose and played like it, walked away with the win. And did so with the love of a large, screaming, supportive crowd living or diving with every play among the surprising 10,845 who showed up at the same time the UK Wildcats were playing in the NCAA Tournament.
The other team – Newport – did not.
Campbell County Coach Brent Sowder with an encouraging word for his Camels. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
And as much as the story line will be about this second-biggest Kentucky upset of the night, the story should be that of the gritty, gutty, tough-minded Camels of Campbell County, who extended their own win streak to 13 with a 43-40 thriller of a win over a Newport Wildcat team that was losing for the first time in 25 games.
Now the Wildcats did come into this one without their best player – Kentucky’s top sophomore Taylen Kinney – nursing a pulled right hamstring and showing none of the explosiveness that makes him a top national recruit, limiting him to a scoreless five minutes.
Would the Wildcats have won with a fully healthy Kinney? Probably. He’s that good. But that wasn’t how it happened here. Campbell County (27-6) won this one because the Camels simply refused to lose.
This Newport team (32-4) was good enough to beat a strong Cooper team in the Ninth Region finals after Kinney’s injury in the opening seconds of that game. But not good enough to beat the Camels.
‘We did it,’ Campbell County’s Broc Sorgenfrei tells teammate Gary Jackson. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
The Wildcats weren’t good enough against a nerve-free Camel team that just kept making plays on the way to a mind-blowing 24-12 lead right before halftime thanks to a 13-4 second quarter when the four senior starters with junior Garyn Jackson, coming off his 10th Region-winning three-point shot last week, took turns making tough plays and tough shots.
“We stayed the course,” first-year Campbell County Head Coach Brent Sowder said of how his team turned things around after back-to-back midseason losses to Covington Catholic and Cooper by a combined 31 points. “Everybody continued to trust one another.” And they haven’t lost since.
But there was the defensive game plan that limited Kinney-less Newport to 40 points, their lowest total of the year. “We treated every possession when they took a jump shot as a win,” Sowder said as his team limited Newport to six-for-26 shooting in the crucial second and fourth quarters.
“I felt like when we got into the lane, they walled us up,” Newport Coach Rod Snapp said, describing “how uncomfortable” the “experienced” Camels made Newport play on offense.
James Turner’s early dunk for Newport did not deter the Camels. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
“These guys are so mature,” Sowder said, agreeing.
That’s how you win a game like this when your tallest player is a smallish 6-foot-4 as Campbell senior Connor Weinel is listed going against Newport’s 6-7 athletic sophomore James Turner, who led Newport with 14 points and five rebounds.
“He’s a big kid – and strong,” said Weinel, who just missed a double-double with 10 rebounds and nine rebounds, “I knew we had to rebound.” And they had to hit some threes – they made three more than the Wildcats’ two of 12 from distance – and knocked down 10 of 14 free throws to Newport’s two of four.
Which is what it came down to at the end. Newport had caught Campbell County twice – at 32 and 34 all – “if we’d only been able to get a lead,” Snapp said.
But guys like football quarterback Nathan Smith and backup Xavier Fancher each stepped up in the final 38.3 seconds of pressing, scrambling, timeouts and turnovers – to knock down all four free throws.
And that was it. “This means a lot,” Weinel said, “two teams from the same area.” And one goes on. Not the one we thought it would be. But the one who made it happen Thursday.
“What an incredible year,” Snapp said. “These guys (the Newport program) have never won this many games.”
But as Newport senior Jabari Covington, who added 11 points for Newport, said, “We definitely didn’t want to go out like this . . . it hurts.”
Despair of defeat for Newport senior Jabari Covington. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
With four of their top six players underclassmen like Turner and Kinney, there was talk of “next year,” for Newport, and “going farther.”
But for senior transfer Deshaun Jackson, who came over this year from Cincinnati Taft, this was it: “I wish I’d come over my freshman year,” Jackson said, “I love these guys.”
The Camels, meanwhile, sounded a different tune. “It feels amazing,” said Garyn Jackson, who made every shot he took – all four field goal attempts, one from three-point range, and both free throws.
“After I made that shot (last week for the regional win).” Jackson’s 11 points was second only to Broc Sorgenfrei’s 12, including two three-pointers, for the winners.
Campbell County will face Harlan County, a 67-59 winner over Warren Central, Friday at 6 p.m. Harlan County is 32-4, an unbeaten 18-0 in the 13th Region and a 92-83 overtime winner over Louisville DeSales in its lone game in Northern Kentucky at the Griffin Elite Classic Dec. 16.
Trent Noah, a 6-6 senior guard averaging 29.7 points a game, leads the Black Bears. He scored 35 points on 11-of-19 shooting Thursday.
SCORING SUMMARY
CAMPBELL COUNTY 11 13 8 11–43
NEWPORT 10 4 18 8–40
CAMPBELL COUNTY (27-6): Johnson 1-4 0-2-1-2 3, Smith 0-3 0-1 2-2 2, Weinel 3-9 1-2 2-2 9, Sorgenfrei 5-9 2-3 0-2 12, G. Jackson 4-4 1-1 2-2 11, Franzen 0-3 0-2 1-2 1, Fancher 1-1 1-1 2-2 5; TOTALS: 14-33 5-12 10-14 43.
NEWPORT (32-4): Turner 6-9 0-0 2-3 14, Starks 1-4 0-1 0-0 3, Anderson 2-4 1-1 0-0 5, Covington 5-18 1-5 0-1 11, D. Jackson 3-7 0-0 0-0 6, Kinney 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Silverton 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Lowe 1-6 0-4 0-0 0; TOTALS: 18-49 2-12 2-4 40.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
