By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Rondon’s return rejuvenates Wildcats
Two questions have animated the first month of the boys’ high school basketball season here. What the heck happened to No. 1 preseason pick Newport, as the Wildcats dipped to 5-6 with three straight Ninth Region losses in December?
And then, what happens when Cooper transfer Yamil Rondon gets back from surgery and moves in to lead Newport? After Sunday’s 73-53 win over Walton-Verona (7-6) at the Griffin Elite Basketball Classic at Thomas More, we may have our answer – to both questions.
In the senior point guard’s first game back, all Rondon did was lead the Wildcats with 25 points on eight-of-13 shooting (including two of three from three-point range) with seven of eight from the line. For a team that lost top scorer, and national Top 25 prospect Taylen Kinney to the Overtime Elite national program in Atlanta, that scoring punch at guard is exactly what the Wildcats – 8-6 now and on a three-game win streak – needed.
The Wildcats’ two big underclassmen, 6-7 junior James Turner and 6-8 sophomore Griffin Starks added 17 and 14 points respectively with Turner converting eight of 10 from the field with seven rebounds, one fewer than Starks’ eight. Sophomore guard Amontae Lowe added nine points to give the Wildcats a solid four-man scoring punch.
Newport still has challenging games against the like of Archbishop Hoban (Akron, Ohio), Kentucky No. 1 Louisville St. Xavier at NKU Feb. 2, Proviso East (Illinois) and Covington Catholic coming up in the next four weeks. But the return of Rondon, a member of the Under-16 Puerto Rican national team last summer, changes the outlook on all those games not to mention the All-A Classic.
Tough weekend for NKU, TMU hoops
Just when it looked like Northern Kentucky’s Norse were about to get it going after a challenging early road schedule, a five-game win streak has turned into a two-game losing skid. And the Norse (9-9, 4-3 Horizon) were pounded, 68-53, at Truist Arena Saturday by an Oakland team that came into the game with a 5-12 record (2-4 Horizon).

Two things at issue for the Norse: They continued to have trouble scoring the ball, hitting on just 36.4 percent (20 of 55) from the field. Then there was the problem at the other end. NKU permitted Oakland to score 29 second chance points on 20 offensive rebounds.
Sam Vinson led NKU with 11 points while backup transfer shooter Josh Dilling, a grad student, added 10 with two of NKU’s seven (for 29) three-point attempts. For NKU, on a day when a crowd of 3,512 showed up, the Norse fell behind 12-3 early and never got closer than within three.
It was an ill-timed loss as the Norse head off to league-leading Cleveland State for a Wednesday road game.
SCORING SUMMARY
OAKLAND 41 27—68
NKU 32 21–53
OAKLAND (6-12, 3-4 Horizon): Cole 5-13 4-11 2-2 15, Naiavalurua 7-8 1-1 0-0 15 I. Jones 3-8 0-3 4-5 10, Mukeba 3-8 0-0 2-2 8, Hoth 2-9 2-8 0-0 6, J. Jones 2-8 0-2 2-2 6, Mashnour 1-1 1-1 1-1 4, Woodrich 1-3 1-3 1-1 4, Craggs 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Majak 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTAL: 24-58 9-29 11-12–68.
NKU (9-9, 4-3 Horizon): Vinson 4-9 1-4 2-3 11, Pettus 3-9 2-6 0-0 8, Wells 4-6 0-1 0-3 8, Robinson 2-10 0-3 1-2 5, Itejere 2-3 0-0 1-2 5, Dilling 3-10 2-8 2-2 10. Pivorius 2-7 2-7 0-0 6, Tchilombo 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Gherezgher 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Rapolis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 20-55 7-29 6-12—53.
Thomas More falls short at home
Redshirt freshman Jack McCune out of Paducah’s McCracken County High fired in 24 points to lead Thomas More at home Saturday but it wasn’t enough to hold off an Ashland team that trailed the Saints in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference as TMU fell, 83-71, and is now 10-5 overall and 5-3 in the GMAC.

That’s the same league record for an Ashland team that improves its overall mark to 9-6 (5-3 in the GMAC) as it jumped on TMU for 44 first-half points and then finished up with a 39-31 second-half edge.
Kai Simpson, a sophomore out of Louisville Trinity, added 17 points with three rebounds and two assists for TMU. Six-foot-eight Mitchell Rylee out of Covington Catholic added nine points with seven rebounds with three assists.
For the game, TMU hit on 45.6 percent (25-57) from the field, nine of 28 from three-point range and 10 of 14 (71.4 percent) from the line.
For Ashland, the trio of Maceo Williams (31 points), Cooper Davis (20) and Jaron Crews (15) totaled 66 points as the Eagles hit on a sizzling 29 of 49 from the field for 59.2 percent with seven of 15 from three-point range (46.7 percent) with the trio of Williams, Davis and Crews hitting on 22 of 32 shots.
The Saints return to league play Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against Lake Erie in Painesville, Ohio.
SCORING SUMMARY
ASHLAND 44 39—83
THOMAS MORE 40 31—71
ASHLAND (9-6, 5-3 GMAC): Williams 11-13 1-1 8-10 31, Davis 5-9 4-6 6-6 20, Crews 6-10 1-3 2-2 15, Stanic 2-2 0-0 0-0 4, Etzler 0-2 0-1 0-0 0, Adio 3-4 1-1 0-0 7, Aden 2-7 0-2 2-2 6, Metzger 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Valentine 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Moore 0-1 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 29-49 7-15 18-20–83.
THOMAS MORE (10-5, 5-3): Mitchell 4-8 0-0 1-3 9, George 2-7 0-0 2-2 6, Crowe 2-7 1-4 0-0 5, Vieth 1-4 1-4 0-0 3, McClain 1-6 1-5 0-0 3, McClain 9-14 3-8 3-4 24, Simpson 5-9 3-5 4-5 17, Pouncy 2-2 0-0 0-0 4; TOTALS: 25-57 9-28 10-14—71.