By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Scoring binges by Campbell County sophomore forward Austin Davie and Lloyd senior guard Anthony Blaackar have put them ahead of the pack in the race for the Northern Kentucky boys basketball scoring title with two weeks left in the regular season.
Davie scored 27 points or more in the Camels’ last five games to raise his season average to 24.7. Blaackar is right behind him with a 24.5 average after netting 127 points in the Juggernauts’ last four games.
The three players behind them are Conner senior Finn Louden (24.1), Scott freshman Benjamin Brown (23.7) and Covington Catholic senior Athens Gillis (23.3).
Brown is a transfer student who has played in only nine varsity games since gaining eligibility.
Blaackar set a Lloyd school record when he netted 51 points during a win over Mason County on Saturday at Bracken County. He was 20-of-26 from the field overall, 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point arc and 7-of-11 at the free throw line. Two days later, he scored 23 points in a 69-68 win at Highlands.
Lloyd has won six in a row going into Thursday’s game at Dixie Heights that will decide the top seed in the 34th District tournament. The Juggernauts will end the regular season with a game at Conner that will feature a matchup between scoring leaders Blaackar and Louden.
In Campbell County’s last five games, Davie’s scoring totals were 34, 35, 27, 40 and 30 points. The 6-foot-5 sophomore had 11 or more rebounds in three of those games to post a double-double. He’s shooting 57.2 percent (235 of 411) from the field going into a home game against Ryle on Wednesday.
Bowlers bring home boys state runner-up trophies
Louisville Trinity defeated Covington Catholic in the championship match of the boys state bowling tournament for the second straight year, but it took five games to decide the title.
In Monday’s final at Kingpin Lanes in Louisville, Trinity had to win the last two games to pull out a 3-2 victory. Last year, Trinity won the title match with a three-game sweep against CovCath.
The final scores in Monday’s match were 182-190, 235-197, 172-205, 224-197, 217-202. Trinity and CovCath had the highest pin totals in the qualifying round to earn the top two seeds in the 16-team bracket. CovCath won three-game matches against Central Hardin and Frederick Douglass to reach the final.
In the boys singles tournament, Blake Ackerman of Trinity defeated Maddox Kuryla of Boone County, 235-184, in the championship match.
Bowlers with the top four pin totals in the qualifying round were seeded in the stepladder bracket. Kuryla upset two higher seeded bowlers to reach the final against top-seeded Ackerman.
CovCath bowlers Mason Bowman and Dylan Davis placed seventh and ninth in the qualifying round. The other local bowlers among the top 20 scorers were Simon Kenton teammates Tyler Blume (14th) and Aleck Meredith (20th).
The state bowling tournament will continue Tuesday with the girls singles and team competition. Unified teams will compete for state titles on Wednesday.
Notre Dame grad playing for undefeated college team
Notre Dame Academy graduate Macie Feldman is a starting guard on the Johns Hopkins University women’s basketball team that has a 20-0 record and No. 4 ranking in NCAA Division III.
Feldman is averaging 8.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists for the Blue Jays. The 5-foot-8 senior leads the Continental Conference in assists and ranks fourth in rebounding. Her team sits on top of the conference standings with an 11-0 record and ranks first in offensive average (74.2) and defensive average (49.5).
Last year, Feldman was named second-team all-conference and Johns Hopkins made it to the round of 16 in the NCAA Division III playoffs. In her team’s three NCAA tournament games, she averaged 16.6 points, 4.3 assists and 8.6 rebounds. She currently has career totals of 889 points, 806 rebounds and 346 assists.