By Terry Boehmmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
More than 7,000 fans showed up for a 9th Region boys basketball double-feature on Sunday afternoon at Truist Arena, but the first show in the semifinals matinee was not a suspenseful thriller.
Newport took a 26-7 lead in the first half and kept on rolling to a 60-29 win over Lloyd. It was the widest winning margin in a 9th Region boys semifinal game since a 35-point victory in 1990 and the 23rd consecutive win for the defending region champions.
The Wildcats (31-3) will face Cooper (24-8) in the region final for the second consecutive year at 7 p.m. Tuesday with the winner advancing to the Kentucky “Sweet 16” state tournament.
“I’m surprised the way it went overall, to be honest,” Newport coach Rodney Snapp said of his team’s semifinal romp. “The kids came to play and now we’re looking forward to Tuesday.”
The coach had not seen the final statistics when he came out of the locker room to answer questions from sportswriters. But he really didn’t need any numbers to assess his team’s effort.
“They played with confidence,” Snapp said. “They made the extra pass. They made hard cuts. They played on both ends as hard as they could. I’m happy for them, for sure.”
The Wildcats’ dominating performance showed why they’ve been ranked among the top five teams in the state media poll all season. They shot 54.3 percent (25 of 46) from the field while holding Lloyd to 27.9 percent (12 of 43) and won the battle on the boards by a 35-22 margin.
None of Lloyd’s players made more than two field goals and their team had just three second-chance points under their own basket. On the defensive glass, Newport had a decisive 29-6 rebounding advantage.
Lloyd junior forward EJ Walker, who came into the game averaging 17.1 points and 11.1 rebounds, ended up with six points and two rebounds in the season-ending loss for the Juggernauts (25-8), who were held to less than 30 points for the first time since December of 2021.
Snapp said he told sophomore center James Turner and his team’s other inside players they had to be physical in the paint against the 6-foot-8, 220-pound Walker, one of the state’s top college prospects.
“We told James or whoever when we switched on (Walker), ‘You apply contact first, don’t let him get low,'” Snapp said. “If he gets on the block, he’s really good with squaring up and hitting shots over you. We just couldn’t let him get comfortable in there.”
The Wildcats got a few transition baskets off defensive rebounds and steals. When they had to run their half-court offense, they showed a lot more patience than they did in a 45-43 win over Ryle in a first-round region game.
“That last game we played kind of crazy and we didn’t want to have that again,” said Newport senior guard Jabari Covington. “We were just trying to get everybody involved. Don’t be selfish going one-on-one, take one more pass, and that got us open looks and everybody got going.”
Covington scored a game-high 14 points, followed by Turner and sophomore point guard Taylen Kinney with 13 each. Kinney, another one of the state’s top college prospects, also had five assists, six rebounds, two steals and one block.
Kinney said he didn’t expect a 31-point victory in a region semifinal game, but he’d like to see another strong team effort at both ends of the court by the Wildcats in the championship game rematch with Cooper on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to go play like we did out there today,” Kinney said. “We ain’t lived up to all of (our expectations) yet. We’ve still got to cut down those two nets.”
Newport won last year’s region championship game against Cooper, 44-42, on a last-second basket. In a regular season game on Feb. 15, the Wildcats came away with another close win, 48-42, at Cooper.
LLOYD 13 13 20 14 — 60
NEWPORT 3 4 11 11 — 29
LLOYD (25-9): Collins 1 0 2, Blaackar 1 0 2, Sebastian 2 0 6, Walker 2 1 6, Humphrey 1 0 3, Sims 2 0 4, Copland 1 0 2, Golsby 1 0 2, Criner 1 0 2. Totals: 12 1 29.
NEWPORT (31-3): Kinney 5 2 13, Covington 6 1 14, Jackson 0 2 2, Turner 6 0 13, Starks 3 1 8, Silverton 2 0 4, Lowe 2 0 4, Nicholas 1 0 2. Totals: 25 6 60.
Three-point goals: L — Sebastian 2, Walker, Humphrey. N — Starks, Turner, Covington, Kinney.
Basketball region tournament schedules
9TH REGION BOYS AT NKU TRUIST ARENA
Tuesday
Championship game: Newport (31-3) vs. Cooper (24-8), 7 p.m.
10TH REGION BOYS AT MASON COUNTY
Monday
Mason County (21-11) vs. Harrison County (16-14), 6 p.m.
Campbell County (24-6) vs. George Rogers Clark (30-2), 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday
Championship game, 7 p.m.
8TH REGION BOYS AT HENRY COUNTY
Monday
Simon Kenton (17-15) vs. North Oldham (26-5), 6:30 p.m.
Walton-Verona (23-10) vs. Spencer County (23-9), 8 p.m.
Tuesday
Championship game, 7 p.m.