By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
For the second straight game in the Saturday night Ninth Region doubleheader at Truist Arena, the winning team struggled to hit 50 points while the loser made it just past the mid-40s.
A couple of numbers will help you understand Lloyd Memorial’s somewhat forgettable 51-46 win over the Ryle Raiders. How about two for 22, or maybe one for nine? Those were the three-point shooting totals for Ryle and Lloyd respectively.
“Two for 22,” Ryle coach Nick Dorning repeated more than once in his postgame analysis of a game his team did almost everything it needed to do but put the ball in the basket. If only they could have knocked down just a couple more of those three-point attempts. Was it the background at this big arena? Maybe.
To be honest, the half-time half-court shot contest had far better luck with two of the four participants Saturday connecting. For those doing the math for these two teams from three-point range, that three of 31 is a wretched 9.7 percent.
But at least that’s a number. For nearly half the first quarter, until the 4:07 mark, Ryle was scoreless, trailing 12-0 and looking like this was going to be a really long night for the guys from Union.
Not the case, said Dorning, or his departing senior all-time scoring leader, Landon Lorms, who told his teammates at a timeout, down 12 : “It’s not over yet, there’s a lot of time left.” And they believed him.
“My kids were super calm,” Dorning said. “I think it (the 12-0 deficit) made us fight harder.” Although it would be hard to imagine how Lorms could fight much harder as the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder who looks like a prototype NFL strong safety and has yet to decide which sport or where he’ll continue in college, fired in a beyond impressive 26 points.
The Raiders had a three-part gameplan, Dorning said. “Take care of the basketball,” which they did with just six turnovers. “Rebound the basketball,” which they did in a 35-35 tie with Lloyd. And “put the ball in the bottom of the net,” which that two-of-22 number indicates they did not, shooting just 31.5 percent for the game.
“Do three of those and you win the game,” Dorning said. “Do two of them and you’re in a rock fight,” which they did and were. Even though Lorms was clearly the player fans will remember from this game even if 6-8 South Carolina signee EJ Walker scored 19 to lead Lloyd and had crowds of young fans asking for his autograph later.
And no, EJ is not concerned that the Juggernauts allowed Ryle to come within four points four times in a fourth-quarter run that had Lorms making one amazing scoring play after another.
“We can win by one point, that’s all that matters,” Walker said of a Lloyd team that has won 14 straight over the last two months and moves on to the Tuesday night 8 p.m. semifinal nightcap against Newport.
But on this next point, EJ and his dad, Lloyd coach Mike Walker do not agree. “In my opinion, we’re the best team . . . we’ve got the best team,” EJ says of the Juggs, who have won 98 games in the 4 ½ years since his dad took over the program in Erlanger.
And when Jaydon Humprey steps up the way he did Saturday, with 16 points on seven-of-11 shooting with seven rebounds, they’re pretty good. Anthony Blaackar, who added 10, averages 15.1 points a game, second only to Walker’s 19.2.
After losing to Lloyd, 59-52, in a December tournament, Newport coach Rod Snapp agrees with EJ that Lloyd should be the favorites.
Hold on, says Mike Walker. “There are no favorites. I don’t care what Rod says. I don’t believe in favorites, not in our region,” a region Walker says is the best in the state – “including Louisville.”
And that’s been a constant with the semifinal matchups the exact same for the last three years here now – Covington Catholic against Cooper, Newport against Lloyd.
Whatever Northern Kentucky’s Ninth Region is, it’s consistent. Last year, Cooper survived CovCath and Newport outlasted Lloyd. Will history repeat itself.
One difference, Cooper had Yamil Rondon in its win a year ago. Now he’s at Newport. Just sayin’.
SCORING SUMMARY
Ryle 5 11 11 19—46
Lloyd 16 6 16 13—51
Ryle (16-13): Haygood 0-2 0-2 0-0 0, Lorms 9-21 2-6 6-9 26, Coppola 1-8 0-4 0-0 2, Davis 2-7 0-4 4-5 8, Smith 2-8 0-4 0-0 4, DeGroff 3-8 0-2 0-2 6; TOTALS: 17-54 2-22 10-16 46.
Lloyd Memorial (25-6): Golsby 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Collins 0-2 0-2 0-0 0, Blaackar 4-9 0-0 2-4 10, Sebastian 0-2 0-1 0-0 0, Walker 8-16 1-2 2-3 19, Humphrey 7-11 0-1 2-2 16, Bresser 0-3 0-3 0-0 0, Copeland 1-2 0-0 0-2 2, Lewis 1-2 0-0 0-0 2; TOTALS: 22-48 1-9 6-11 51.