Not a bad idea – three basketball games on a sunny Sunday afternoon in February at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena. With an eye to tournament time in four weeks, not a bad way to get tournament ready.
Even if it took some doing to pull the City Barbecue Classic off. Two of the teams – the Campbell County boys and girls – played Saturday at the famed “Hoosiers Gym” (from the movie) in Knightstown, Ind.
The Newport Wildcat boys didn’t get back from their three-hour return trip from a Saturday road win over Akron’s Archbishop Hoban, a top 10 team in their Ohio class, until after 10.
Highlands’ girls had played Friday at the Louisville Invitational but after the trip – and a tough matchup against Kentucky powerhouse Assumption – a day’s rest might not have been enough.
The Highlands’ boys, playing their fourth game in five days after a Friday trip to Union and a 12-point loss to region No. 1 Cooper, could use the day off Saturday.
Then there was the lone outsider, Louisville St. Xavier, Kentucky’s No. 1 team without an in-state loss since last season. The 19-2 Tigers had played teams from Chicago, Bethesda, Md., Sammamish, Wash. and Houston, Tex. in a tournament in Torrey Pines, California, so the 110-mile haul up I-71 was hardly a problem. Although the flu was, with some St. X players fighting it.
Newport’s Ninth Region preseason-favorite Wildcats turned out to be a problem too, just as they were thinking they might be before the departure of blue-ribbon junior prospect Taylen Kinney to Atlanta’s Overtime Elite program. And so here the Wildcats were, trying to get themselves going against the state’s best team behind Cooper transfer and Under-17 Puerto Rico national team guard, Yamil Rondon, as he works his way back from offseason shoulder surgery.
Lots of plotlines for this day.
GAME 1: LADY CAMELS OPEN WITH A WIN: But first, the girls’ opener for this tripleheader, Campbell County’s now 15-6 Camels held off Highlands 13-5 Bluebirds, 58-51, as junior Campbell County guard Isabella Jayasuriya impressed with her all-court game.
GAME 2: YOUNG HIGHLANDS RUNS AWAY FROM CAMPBELL COUNTY: Playing on this floor where the Ninth Region Tournament will be played in March doesn’t benefit the 10th Region Camels the way it does Highlands and Newport. After all, the Camels have to head to Mt. Sterling and Montgomery County, a 2½ hour trip one way, for the 10th Region tournament.
But getting their groove going against a young Highlands’ team that opened with seven straight wins and an 11-3 start on the way here is plenty reason enough to schedule on back-to-back days after traveling back from Indiana for the Camels’ fourth game in five days this week.
“Still on the bus somewhere on I-74?” Campbell County coach Brent Sowder was asked after his Camels’ 76-51 loss.
“Who scheduled this game?” he asked, pointing the finger in his direction. But that doesn’t really explain how a team that opened the week with a 20-point win over Covington Catholic Wednesday ended it five days later with a 25-point loss to a Highlands team without a senior on the squad.
“We deserve what we got,” Sowder said, and the flip side of that works as well.
“Same for us,” Highlands’ coach Kevin Listerman said after his young guys stepped up with their top performance of this 15-6 season. “It’s been a long five days,” said Vinny Listerman, the coach’s son, with a big grin on his face certifying that this was the perfect way to end four games in five days.
As much as Campbell County deserved this loss, Sowder said, this Highlands’ team deserved this win, playing fast on both sides of the ball, racking up 24 points in a 24-15 opening quarter. On offense, as always, the Birds played fast.
“We have to play fast,” Listerman said. But they also played that way on defense, picking the Camels up early and pretty much not letting them go, getting into the passing lanes and giving them few good looks. “We did a great job pressuring them, pressuring them without having to switch,” Listerman said.
Credit junior Charlie Messmer and sophomore Finn Bouldin with setting the defensive tone, Listerman said. On offense, 6-foot-3 ½ junior Nathan Rickard led the way running the floor for 21 points while the precocious Bouldin added 14.
And then of course, there was sophomore Tayden Lorenzen, better known as a tight end/quarterback and son of the late “Hefty Lefty” Jared Lorenzen of Highlands’, UK and NFL/pro football fame. “I’ll use a Coach (Kenney) Shields’ word and say he has a lot of ‘moxie,’ Listerman said of the 6-2 space-eating sophomore whose one-of-kind scoring moves down low, plus his three-point shooting, produced 15 points.
And to top off their day, Highlands showed up with their 16-strong state champion dance team, 16 cheerleaders and the Bluebird band. Nice.
SCORING SUMMARY
CAMPBELL COUNTY 15 15 17 4–51
HIGHLANDS 24 20 22 10—76
Campbell County (16-6): Franzen 3 3-5 9, Davie 3 2-2 8, Elam 4 3-5 11, Fancher 2 0-0 5, Jackson 6 4-6 16, Dowds 0 0-0 0, L. Anthorp 1 0-0 2; TOTALS: 18 1 8-12 51.
Highlands (15-7): Bouldin 6 0-1 14, Rickard 10 0-1 21, Listerman 5 0-1 11, C. Messmer 0 2-2 2, Ebert 3 1-1 8, Shaffer 0 1-2 1, Vennefron 1 0-0 2, Carnohan 1 0-0 2, Lorenzen 7 0 0-1 15; Totals: 33 4-8 76.
NO. 1 ST. X SHOWS NEWPORT IT’S FOR REAL, WILDCATS DO SAME: The challenges have been plenty for this Newport team. Picked No. 1 only to lose Northern Kentucky’s top player, scheduling as if he’d be here, falling three times already to Ninth Region teams, failing to get out of the region to defend its Kentucky All-A Classic and even on this weekend, playing a Saturday game on the road followed by a late afternoon game at Truist Sunday.
And against the best team they’d played all year, a St. Xavier team that does everything well. The Tigers are not only the leading scoring team in the state, at 80.3 points a game with a second-best average winning margin of 25.1 points, with some of the state’s top shooters to go with senior Will Hanke, who makes 74.3 percent of his field goal attempts, best in the state.
“They are elite offensively,” Newport coach Rod Snapp said, “they are so good on offense.”
Here’s the problem. They may be better on defense, as their 10 steals and full-court pressure made clear. And for Newport, the perfect way to end the week after getting in late the night before.
“I wanted to challenge us with a tournament-like schedule,” Snapp said, not to mention tournament-caliber opponents. “I’m not happy that we lost.”
But fighting back to get into this one only to fall, 68-61, after falling behind 18-6 after the first quarter, Snapp couldn’t be unhappy with his players’ effort. St. X is smart and physical and so well-coached. Getting back into this one at halftime – and then at the end – says that the Wildcats, given another month, might be that team they were picked to be.
They’re not going to face better athletes than St. X 6-5 junior Jeremiah Jackson, who looks like an NFL edge rusher, but had four of St. X’s 15 threes (out of 29 attempts) on his way to 15 points. Or senior guard Chance Dillingham, who also nailed four threes on his way to 17 points. Or the 6-4 Hanke, who hit for 10 points with 10 rebounds. Or the extremely athletic 6-1 freshman Joshua Lindsay, who scored 14.
Credit Newport’s balance for getting them back with the big guys inside – 6-7 James Turner and 6-8 Griffen Starks with 16 and 13 points respectively, along with 6-3 DaShawn Anderson’s 11 more – getting plenty of support from sophomore guard Amontae Lowe, who scored 16 points with six rebounds and three assists.
With a win over Archbishop Hoban Friday and games at Newport Central Catholic Wednesday, at Covington Catholic Friday and then against Chicago-area power Proviso East at the Bracken County Igloo Saturday, the Wildcats will have plenty more opportunities for growth this weekend, Snapp says.
SCORING SUMMARY
ST. XAVIER 18 12 22 16–68
NEWPORT 6 19 13 23—61
Louisville St. Xavier (20-2): Klein 2-6 0-1 2-5 1-2 7, O’Bryan 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Cameron 1-7 1-4 0-3 0-0 2, Lindsay 6-9 4-6 2-3 0-0 14, Johnson 1-1 0-0 1-1 0-0 3, Dillingham 5-9 1-4 4-5 3-4 17, Jackson 5-11 4-7 1-4 4-4 15, Hanke 5-8 5-7 0-1 10; TOTALS: 25-51 15-29 10-22 8-10 68.
Newport (13-8): Anderson 4-7 1-3 3-4 0-0 11, Turner 7-13 7-12 0-1 2-2 16, Starks 6-8 6-6 0-2 1-1 13, Rondon 1-5 1-2 0-3 3-4 5, Lee 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Hurry 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Amontae Lowe 6-14 5-11 1-3 3-3 16; Totals: 24-48 20-35 4-13 9-10 61.