By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
In the old-time TV game show “To Tell the Truth,” the host always requested one final thing of the three contestants, two of them impostors: “Will the real Joe Schmo please stand up.”
Same thing happened at Newport Central Catholic Friday night in the 36th District Boys’ basketball championship game in front of a loud crowd just below capacity.
The real Newport Wildcats, defending Ninth Region champs with all that size and young talent, stood up. As their loyal fans were hoping they would.
After an up-and-down 10-loss season (with five in the region against 18 wins now) and without blue-chip junior Taylen Kinney, who headed off to Atlanta and the national exposure and the rewards of playing for the Overtime Elite program but returned to cheer on his old teammates for this game, the Wildcats stepped up.
And gave us a glimpse of what might have been – or maybe what just might be next week — with a 69-49 crunching of a young Highlands team of the future without a senior starter.
“We’ve definitely got some guys, some younger guys, too,” said 6-foot-7 Wildcat junior James Turner, noting that Newport starts just one senior. And that senior, transfer guard Yamil Rondon, who came over from Cooper while rehabbing shoulder surgery, is only now rounding into the form that had him on the Puerto Rican Under-17 national team.
“I didn’t think it would take this long but it’s good to be back,” Yamil said after playing both point and off-guard for the Wildcats while dishing out eight assists and scoring 21 points from both spots.
“We have another point guard who can handle it,” Yamil said of sophomore Amontae Lowe, who added five more assists to the Wildcats’ total of 24 compared to Highlands’ 10.
And that’s the way the Wildcats, flying up and down the floor now, like it. “When we play fast like that, we speed people up,” Yamil said, “we like to do that.”
“They played with energy,” said a smiling Kinney, who would have been Kentucky’s No. 1 senior prospect next year had he stayed. “And they played as a team.”
No one played with more energy than Division I prospect Turner, who scored 23 points, grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, and dished out five assists in earning the District MVP Award.
“I wanted to come out here and three-peat,” Turner said. “Three-peat or repeat?” he was asked. “Both,” Turner said. His best performance of the year? Nope. I feel I could have hit some more shots, said Turner, who canned 11 of 23 from the field and would not be deterred by the smaller Bluebird defenders.
Nor was this Newport team deterred after taking an early punch from a Highlands’ team that jumped out to a 12-5 lead thanks to the three-point shooting of junior Charlie Messmer. Falling behind hardly slowed the Wildcats down.
All they did the next 2 ½ quarters was outscore Highlands, 59-27, with a withering, shot-blocking, ball-stealing 1-2-2 zone press that often swiped a Highlands’ shot out of mid-air, then scored the other way in the blink of an eye. Newport totaled nine blocks with seven steals. Not at all like the 73-69 win over Highlands a month ago.
“We’ve been working on that,” Newport coach Rod Snapp said as he cradled the game ball in one hand and part of the net in another. “We want to play fast and transition like that.”
One of the reasons this game was different. “It’s the first time we’ve had our first eight all here,” Snapp said. And all healthy and ready to go as he looked at Kinney celebrating with his old teammates.
“He misses it,” Snapp said, just as the Wildcats miss Kinney.
Although on this night, with the entire lineup running and defending and rebounding and sharing the ball, not so much.
Now it’s time off until Saturday, March 8, when the Ninth Region opens with four games at Truist Arena. Drawing is Saturday.
36th District All-Tournament Team: Tristan Woodyard, Bellevue; Cayden Evans, Dayton; Vince Listerman, Highlands; Charlie Messmer, Highlands; Yamil Rondon, Newport; Griffen Starks, Newport; MVP James Turner, Newport.
SCORING SUMMARY
Highlands 15 13 9 12—49
Newport 20 16 20 13—69
Highlands (18-12): Bouldin 5-14 4-10 1-4 0-0 11, Rickard 4-13 4-10 0-2 0-0 8, Listerman 3-10 3-9 0-1 0-0 6, C. Messmer 4-8 1-1 3-7 0-0 11, Back 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Kremer 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-2 1, Ebert 1-2 1-1 0-2 0-2 2, Harris 0-1 0-1 0-0 2-2 2, Shaffer 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Zimmerman 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Vennefron 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, T. Messmer 0-1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Gracey 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Carnohan 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Lorenzen 3-9 1-2 2-7 0-0 8; TOTALS: 20-58 14-36 6-22 3-6 49.
Newport (18-10): Anderson 4-6 4-4 0-2 0-0 8, Crenshaw 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, AJ Lowe 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 1, Turner 11-23 11-21 0-2 1-1 23, Starks 3-6 3-5 0-1 0-0 6, Llanes 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Rondon 9-14 8-10 1-4 2-2 21, Nichols 2-4 2-4 0-0 0-0 4, Lee 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Hurry 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Amontae Lowe 2-4 1-3 1-1 1-2 6; TOTALS: 31-58 29-48 2-10 5-6 69.
