By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Cooper swept the two major awards at the Northern Kentucky Boys Basketball Coaches Association banquet on Sunday when Andy Johnson was named Player of the Year and Tim Sullivan was named Coach of the Year in the 9th Region.
At the end of the regular season, Johnson and Lloyd senior EJ Walker were voted Player of the Year in Division I and Division II by the coaches. They both led their team to the 9th Region championship game and Cooper defeated Lloyd, 53-38, in the showdown for the title on March 18.
Johnson was named most valuable player on the region all-tournament team because he was a double-figure scorer in all three off his team’s victories.
The University of Illinois-Chicago recruit enters this week’s state tournament averaging 22.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, shooting 50.7 percent (219 of 432) from the field and 77.7 percent (136 of 175) at the line.
Walker, a University of South Carolina recruit, averaged 18.5 points and 11.1 rebounds during his senior season and set a team career scoring record. He and Johnson were named 9th Region Player of the Year co-winners by members of the Kentucky Basketball Coaches Association and are invited to tryouts for the Kentucky All Stars team.
Coach Sullivan guided the Cooper team to its first region title since 2017. The Jaguars have won 18 of their last 19 games and take a 23-5 record into their state tournament game against Henderson County (25-6) at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Rupp Arena.
During the 9th Region tournament, Cooper fans showed their support for Sullivan, who said school officials have asked him to resign after this season even though his teams have won more than 300 games since he started the program in 2008.
The coach told his team to put all that aside during the playoffs, but it continues to be a motivating factor for the Jaguars. After one of their region tournament victories, Johnson said they “have way more to play for than just us.”
At Sunday’s banquet, the coaches association also added Brad Carr, former head coach at Scott and Holmes, to their Court of Honor.
Notre Dame grad leads team’s NCAA playoff run
Notre Dame Academy graduate Macie Feldman was a starting junior guard on the Johns Hopkins University women’s basketball teams that made it to the round of 16 in the NCAA Division III playoffs for the second consecutive season.
Feldman averaged 10.1 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds for the 24-5 Blue Jays. The 5-foot-8 guard led the team in assists with 105 and was second in steals with 60. In her team’s three NCAA tournament games, she averaged 16.6 points, 4.3 assists and 8.6 rebounds.
Earlier this season, Feldman posted the third triple-double in the history of the Johns Hopkins program when she had 15 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over Franklin & Marshall. She also had seven double-double performance this season.
A three-year starter, Feldman will enter her senior season with career totals of 711 points and 592 rebounds. She’s majoring in neuroscience with a 3.86 GPA at one of the nation’s leading medical research universities.
Ryle archery teams qualify for state tournament
The Ryle boys archery team placed first and the girls team placed second in the Region 6 tournament on Saturday to qualify for the state championship tournament on April 17 at Central Bank Center in Lexington.
The top two teams in each region advance to the state tournament. Simon Kenton won the Region 6 girls team title and Cooper placed second in the boys team standings. The top three scorers not on state qualifying teams receive individual berths in the state tournament.
The boys and girls individual champions were Marshall Anstaett of Highlands and Anna Beth McCarty of Simon Kenton. They both won by one point over Logan Hammer of Boone County and Lexus Goff of Scott.
Last year, Goff became the first Northern Kentucky student-athlete to win an individual state championship in archery after tying for third place in the girls region tournament. Ryle was the second-place team in last year’s boys state tournament.
REGION 6 ARCHERY TOURNAMENT
Top 5 girls team scores — Simon Kenton 1953, Ryle 1927, Cooper 1916, Scott 1915, Highlands 1890.
Top 3 individual scores — Anna Beth McCarty (Simon Kenton) 286, Lexus Goff (Scott) 285, Prisha Shah (Ryle) 284. Nyla McIntosh (Simon Kenton) 284. Other state qualifiers — Addison Alloway (Scott) 283, Ava Boertlein of Notre Dame 283.
Top 5 boys team scores — Ryle 1941, Cooper 1933, Boone County 1926, Scott 1925, Dixie Heights 1896.
Top 3 individual scorers — Marshall Anstaett (Highlands) 288, Logan Hammer (Boone County) 287, Kayson Stone (Cooper) 285, Brayden Nevels (Cooper) 284, Grayson Runion (Simon Kenton) 284.