By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
It was the dog that didn’t bark.
Not only was Cooper’s five-game winning streak against Covington Catholic not a motivator for the top-ranked and unbeaten Colonels Thursday night in Park Hills, it wasn’t even a thought.
“I didn’t even know that,” CovCath’s second-year coach Jake Thelen said of his team’s Cooper losing streak the past three seasons.
“It wasn’t much of a talking point.” Or any talking point.
The deep, athletic, physical and relentlessly defending Colonels (4-0) have bigger fish to fry than settling scores. Although CovCath’s 69-34 win over the winless Jaguars (0-4) with a 59-24 lead midway through the third quarter setting off a running clock did answer one talking point.
“Who’s gonna’ play hard tonight?” Thelen asked as he headed down his bench in the early minutes as Cooper hit a couple of quick threes for an 11-9 lead six minutes into the game.
It was not a question. It was a preview. Or a promise as the pressing Colonels outscored Cooper, 12-2, in the final 2:36 for a 21-12 lead that just kept expanding.
To the delight of the Colonel Crazies, the famed student cheering section that clearly enjoys shouting for every defensive stop and steal more than even the flying layups and bombs-away threes. They seem to know when the next turnover is coming. Not that it took a genius to figure out what was about to happen with Cooper committing 21 turnovers while scoring just 12 field goals.
CovCath had two steals in eight seconds on one play with a steal, a quick missed layup and another quick steal after the rebound. The first-half differential, when CovCath played its first nine, was an even more stark 16 turnovers to six Cooper field goals.
“We have smart fans,” Thelen said. “We score when we play good defense. Our fans feed off that for sure.” So does the offense, scoring 32 points off turnovers to Cooper’s 10.
“I’d say that for sure,” says four-year senior starter Athens McGillis, up from a skinny 120-pounder as a freshman to the 175 pounds he carries on his 6-foot frame. “Defense sets up everything,” including many of the twisting layups and rainbow threes he hit for a game-high 18 points. “I enjoy it – the intensity.”
And now in his bigger, stronger body, McGillis, headed to NCAA Division II national champ Nova-Southeastern in Florida, can hang with a lineup that at times has him playing with four football players.
He’d better be able to, he says: “I go against Cash Harney every day,” McGillis says of the all-state athlete headed to UK as a preferred walk-on.
Donovan Bradshaw, the 6-foot-7 wide receiver was talking to a coach from Miami-Hamilton after his 13-point game on six-for-six shooting showing a soft touch in the lane. “It was his birthday,” Thelen said explaining the perfect shooting night. “It’s something we’ve been working on – and it’s paying off.”
So is it paying off for slim 6-4 junior transfer guard Braeden Myrick from Mason County after his family moved to the Greater Cincinnati area from Maysville, who knocked down five of his six shots including a pair of threes. The Colonels’ defensive focus “is all good,” said Myrick, a 19.1-point scorer as a sophomore at Mason County. “School’s good . . . and we’re winning.”
“That’s why he came here,” Thelen said, talking about how “serious student” Myrick is “taking the tough courses and doing well.” Which includes his weight, up 18 pounds to 150, Thelen says of the weight and diet work they’re doing with him.
As for the all-out defense, they couldn’t do it or demand it if they weren’t eight or nine deep and subbing four players at a time, Thelen says. “For sure, you have to have at least eight.” And they have to be ready to go which is why halfway through the first period, CovCath will have played at least eight. “That’s part of our plan.”
One question for new Cooper boys coach Justin Holthaus, over from a stint taking the Cooper girls to the top here: “Who made your schedule?” as his almost all-new Jaguars played Louisville St. Xavier (an 89-31 loss) and CovCath in back-to-back road games – “No. 1 and 2 in the state,” Holthaus says with a shake of the head. “Brutal,” he says of a schedule with games already set that he couldn’t re-arrange.
But as an 11-year boys’ assistant to the departed Tim Sullivan, now at St. Henry, Holthaus makes it clear: “I’m glad to be back.”
SCORING SUMMARY
Cooper Jaguars 13 5 6 10–34
CovCath Colonels 21 20 18 10–69
Cooper Jaguars
Barbour 1/2 1/2 0/0 0/0 2, Knuckles 3/4 3/4 0/0 1/6 7, Stanton 3/6 1/2 2/4 0/0 8, Hartman 0/4 0/1 0/3 0/0 0, Campbell 0/2 0/2 0/0 4/4 4, Czirr 1/1 0/0 1/1 0/0 3, Finke 0/1 0/0 0/1 0/0 0, Dalcour 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Cameron 1/1 1/1 0/0 0/0 2, Hill 2/2 1/1 1/1 0/0 5, Philpot 1/5 0/1 1/4 0/0 3, Graham 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, TOTALS: 12/28 7/14 5/14 5/10 34.
Covington Catholic Colonels
McGillis G 7/13 4/6 3/7 1/1 18, Harney G 0/3 0/2 0/1 0/2 0, Gaiser 2/4 2/4 0/0 2/2 6, Bradshaw 6/6 6/6 0/0 1/2 13, Bode G 3/5 2/3 1/2 0/0 7, Myrick G 5/6 3/3 2/3 0/0 12, Courtmey 1/2 1/2 0/0 0/0 2, Myers 2/3 1/2 1/1 0/0 5, Stava G 2/3 2/3 0/0 0/0 4, Hoyt 0/3 0/0 0/3 0/0 0, Pfeiffer 0/1 0/0 0/1 0/0 0, Brecount 1/2 1/2 0/0 0/0 2, Murphy 0/1 0/0 0/1 0/0 0, Jones 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0; TOTALS: 29/52 22/33 7/19 4/7 69.