By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Could he do it again?
Could Newport’s Yamil Rondon hit a game-winning three-pointer as the clock wound down in Tuesday’s semifinals for the second straight game to get the two-time defending champion Wildcats to their third straight Ninth Region championship game?
He could, well, almost. With just over nine seconds left, Rondon pulled up and delivered a perfectly arcing three to give Newport a 40-39 lead over a Lloyd Memorial team trying to get its first-ever regional championship in “more than 60 years,” one Juggernaut after the other repeated after the game.
But for a school that was founded in 1928 and has never made the trip to the Sweet 16, that would actually seem to be nearly a century. And it looked like that streak would continue if only Rondon’s three-pointer held up.
And then it didn’t.
Down one, Lloyd called timeout with 5.3 seconds left and then had to call another when the Juggs couldn’t get the ball in bounds. Clearly up against it now, Lloyd trailed a Newport team that had committed just three fouls in the fourth quarter. So whoever caught the inbounds pass for Lloyd would surely be fouled before getting a shot off with still no free throws coming, cutting the timing even closer.
And then it happened. Lloyd decided “to put the ball in Anthony’s (Blaackar) hands and attack the basket,” Coach Mike Walker said. That’s how the play started, anyway.
But two unexpected developments changed everything. Blaackar didn’t get fouled as he tried to go downhill on the inbounds pass from the sideline in front of the Lloyd bench. And when he met defenders in the paint, his long layup bounced off way too strong as it hit the glass above the rim with the clock ticking below 2.0 seconds.
“We thought they were going to foul him,” said Lloyd’s 6-foot senior guard Jayden Humphrey, a transfer from Holmes, as he watched the play come toward him. But they didn’t.
“We tried to foul him,” Newport Coach Rod Snapp said. That was the plan. “We had one foul to spare. We just didn’t get it done.”
But Humphrey did. “My main objective was to get the ball,” he said as he slipped in from the left side against Newport’s front-line players standing 6-8, 6-7 and 6-3. “I was thinking I had enough time,” Humphrey said of his two-hand follow rebound push that had the ball through the hoop before the red light around the backboard lit.
Lloyd Memorial 41, Newport 40.
For Yamil Rondon, who had won two straight regional semifinals for Cooper before transferring to Newport, the dream matchup against his former team in a third straight regional championship. was gone.
The Newport cheerleaders who had been chanting “Newport, Newport, Newport, Newport,” since Rondon’s three-pointer seconds earlier went silent. As did the crowd of more than 4,000. For a moment, anyway.
“I’m still in shock,” Humphrey said. After all, this kind of thing doesn’t happen for Lloyd Memorial, and to be honest, Lloyd scored just 12 second-half points. But that was all it took.
No worries for now, the Lloyd program and community will have an entire week to get back on track to face what will be a favored Cooper team (22-5) that beat Lloyd, 63-59, six weeks ago in Erlanger.
“Cooper’s really good with a helluva coach,” Walker said of the embattled Tim Sullivan, who is getting tremendous backing from his players and Cooper fans to keep his job as the only basketball coach in the Union school’s history. And while the Cooper boys will be doing yoga Wednesday and heading down to watch the Cooper girls in the Sweet 16 Thursday, Lloyd will take a day off and enjoy the win, Walker said. And with no worries.
“They hang with each other on and off the court,” he said of this Juggernaut team that has won 15 straight games now. And this is the payoff for a young man like Humphrey, who has put in the extra work over the summer to make it happen for him his senior season.
But leading the Juggs on this night, as you would expect, was 6-8 senior South Carolina signee EJ Walker, the coach’s son, who doesn’t get enough credit in some quarters, Mike Walker says.
In this game, all EJ did was hit on all six of his shots including both his three-point attempts, for a game-high 16 points. Blaackar joined him in double figures with 11 points while Humphrey had nine with a team-high four rebounds thanks to the final game-winner.
Rondon, who opened the game with a pair of three-pointers, led Newport with 15 points and four rebounds, three assists and four steals. Picking up the slack inside with James Turner playing sick and going scoreless in 28;20, were Griffen Starks and AJ Lowe, with 11 points each.
“Yamil’s a helluva ball player,” Mike Walker said, “and he’s had one hell of a career.”
But for Lloyd, “This means a lot,” Walker said of the win. “This program was in a shambles” when he came in more than 4 ½ years ago. “They’d be happy with .500 seasons.”
Now they’ll be really happy with a win next Tuesday (7 p.m.) at Truist Arena for the right to go downstate for the first time ever.
SCORING SUMMARY
LLOYD MEMORIAL 16 13 4 8—41
NEWPORT 12 12 9 7—40
Lloyd Memorial (26-6): Golsby 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Collins 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Blaackar 4-9 0-0 3-4 11, Sebastian 1-4 0-2 0-0 2, Walker 6-6 2-2 2-3 16, Humphrey 3-7 1-2 2-2 9, Bresser 1-3 1-3 0-0 3, Copeland 0-1 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 15-31 4-10 7-9 41.
Newport (19-11): Anderson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, AJ Lowe 4-5 0-1 3-4 11, Turner 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Starks 4-10 1-4 2-3 11, Rondon 5-9 3-5 2-2 15, Nichols 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Amontae Lowe 1-4 0-3 1-2 3; TOTALS: 14-29 4-13 8-11 40.