By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Conner senior guard Finn Louden netted 36 points in his team’s 9th Region tournament game Saturday, but it took more than that for the Cougars to get past Highlands, 79-76, at Truist Arena.
Louden did not score during the final three minutes when Conner had a six-point lead reduced to one, 77-76, in the closing seconds. That’s when senior forward Brady Bushman made the Cougars’ biggest play of the game.
Bushman partially blocked a shot under the basket and was fouled on the rebound. He made both free throws to give his team a 79-76 lead with 11 seconds remaining and Highlands had two 3-point attempts bounce off the rim to end it.
Before his big block, Bushman said there was a “miscommunication” on defense that left Highlands guard Finn Bouldin open under the basket.
“I’d been reading him all game and he was always pump faking it,” Bushman said. “So I sat on it before I jumped and got it.”
Bouldin was one of four double-figure scorers for Highlands, but Louden offset that with his 36-point effort in Conner’s first region tournament victory since 2021. He was 10-of-17 from the field, including 6-of-8 from 3-point range, and 10-of-14 at the line.
“Finn is a special guy, man,” said Conner coach Nathan Browning. “A lot of times we’ll be calling a play and he either doesn’t hear us or else goes on his own and makes a play. You got to live with that sometimes because of the way he is. He makes more plays than he doesn’t.”
Highlands got off to a good start and took a 36-26 lead with 2:46 left in the second quarter. But Louden made two 3-pointers during an 8-2 run that cut the margin to 38-34 at halftime.
“I trust my teammates, but sometime you’ve go to just go and get a bucket,” Louden said. “When we go down that’s when I really fell like I need to step up.”
Conner sophomore guard Juan Rondon scored seven of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. It was his 3-pointer that gave the Cougars their biggest lead, 67-61.
Highlands battled back and pulled to within one point, 76-77, on a pair of free throws by junior center Tayden Lorenzen with 58 seconds left on the clock. But the Bluebirds couldn’t put the ball the basket on their final three shots.
“We made enough plays to give ourselves an opportunity to win it and the shots didn’t go,” said Highlands coach Kevin Listerman. “If you told me we were going to get three looks to win that game, one of them is going to go down, and they just didn’t. The kids executed things the right way and the ball didn’t go in.”
This is the fifth straight year that Highlands has been knocked off in the first round of the region tournament. The team’s leading scorer was eighth-grader Amil Wimzie with 19 points. Lorenzen posted a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds. He also had a team-high six assists.
HIGHLANDS 21 17 19 19 — 76
CONNER 14 20 23 22 — 79
HIGHLANDS (25-6): Wimzie 8 2 19, Bouldin 5 0 11, Rickard 4 2 10, Listerman 1 0 2, Messmer 1 2 4, Ebert 4 1 12, Lorenzen 5 7 18. Totals: 28 14 76.
CONNER (15-12): Louden 10 10 36, Rondon 6 1 14, Bushman 4 2 10, Bloom 1 1 3, Back 1 0 2, Raider 1 1 3, Warner 4 1 11. Totals: 27 16 79.
Three-pointers: H — Ebert 3, Wimzie, Bouldin, Lorenzen. C — Louden 6, Warner 2, Rondon.
Covington Catholic 71, Dixie Heights 41
Turnovers provided the turning point in Covington Catholic’s 71-41 win over Dixie Heights in the opening round of the 9th Region boys basketball tournament on Saturday at Trust Arena.
The score was close in the second quarter until CovCath scored 11 straight points off turnovers forced by its defense to open up a 31-17 lead. The Colonels extended the margin to 37-19 by halftime and sealed the win with a 21-8 run in the third quarter.
“Our defense is based on relentless pressure,” said CovCath coach Jake Thelen. “We really take pride in how we play defensively and I think if we just stay solid and keep doing what we’re doing teams at some point will struggle under the pressure.”
Perhaps no one knows more about dealing with CovCath’s aggressive, in-your-face defense than Dixie Heights coach Scott Code.
This is the third consecutive year that CovCath has ended his team’s season in the first round of the region tournament. In Saturday’s game, the Colonels scored 29 points off 21 turnovers committed by the Dixie Heights players.
“It’s so hard to prep for them,” Code said. “I mean you can think of what you want to do in the half court … but there’s no defense for live ball turnovers. They get to start off playing one-on-one in the half court (after a takeaway) and if nobody else is between them and the rim you don’t have a defense for that. So our live ball turnovers killed us.”
During their decisive 11-0 run, five CovCath players scored off turnovers. At halftime, their team had 19 points off turnovers, which matched the total points scored by Dixie Heights.
Senior guards Cash Harney and Athens McGillis were the chief thieves for CovCath with four steals each. Harney also had team-high totals of 20 points and seven assists.
“Coach always tells us defense makes our offense,” Harney said.”They had people face-guarding us. The best way to stop that is get out and run. That’s our best offense.”
Ranked No. 2 in the final statewide media poll, CovCath (29-2) will play Conner (15-12) in a region semifinal game at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The Colonels lost in the semifinals the last three years, but they’ll be heavily favored Sunday after posting a 99-64 win over Conner during the regular season.
Conner senior guard Finn Louden scored 36 points in his team’s first-round win over Highlands on Saturday. But he was limited to 13 points in a regular season game against CovCath on Jan. 29.
“We’ve just got to do what we do and really prepare for them because he’s a really elite scorer,” coach Thelen said of Louden. “He does a really nice job for them and their coach does a nice job of putting him in position to score.”
DIXIE HEIGHTS 13 6 8 14 — 41
COVCATH 14 23 21 13 — 71
DIXIE HEIGHTS (18-13): Collins 1 0 3, Metzger 4 0 9, Rubemeyer 4 5 13, Givens 1 0 2, Seng 4 0 8, Vonderhaar 1 0 2, Lengerich 1 0 2, Wogenstahl 1 0 2. Totals: 17 5 41.
COVCATH (29-2): McGillis 7 0 15, Harney 8 3 20, Gaiser 2 2 6, Bradshaw 3 0 6, Bode 1 0 2, Myrick 3 1 9, Courtney 2 0 4, Stava 1 0 2, Wischer 1 0 3, Brecourt 1 0 2, Holtzapfel 1 0 2. Totals: 30 6 71.
Three-pointers: DH — Collins, Metzger. CC — Myrick 2, McGillis, Harney, Wischer.