By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
All season long, the talk has been there for Covington Catholic’s seniors.
What have you really accomplished? Not a single Ninth Region championship the last three years. That’s something Coach Jake Thelen may have mentioned a time or two, as well, in his understated way.
But here’s the deal after Tuesday’s 82-51 regional championship romp over Ryle’s Raiders, clearly the second-best team in Northern Kentucky, there was no sense of “We made it . . . We’ve got our regional title.”
Nope, the only joy here was how this was the win the 31-2 Colonels, No. 2 in the state, had to have to get what they really want. A trip to Rupp Arena next week and a chance to continue their journey to a state championship.
Although in running away from a Raider team that had held four postseason opponents to an average of 43.5 points a game, the Colonels had 45 by halftime.
But that wasn’t the point.
“We hadn’t done anything,” said senior Cash Harney, who will be suiting up as a UK wide receiver next summer although if he keeps shooting the ball the way he has in recent weeks, maybe he should send his highlights to both the UK football and basketball coaches.
And now? “We’re scary,” said Regional Tourney MVP Harney as he and fellow football senior Donovan Bradshaw continued their end-of-season scoring, rebounding and defending improvement that showed up again Tuesday in front of a large crowd at NKU’s Truist Arena.
Scary when Harney comes down the floor, pulls up and fires a picture-perfect three-pointer as he did three times here – much as long-range shooters Athens McGillis and Braeden Myrick often do –on his way to 15 points.
Or as the 6-foot-7 Bradshaw, playing with energy and intensity as his 16 rebounds showed, not to mention great touch around the basket as his 21 points on nine-of-14 shooting demonstrated along with the court sense that resulted in four assists
.
“Cash was taking a lot of heat on social media for not scoring enough,” Thelen said of his transition from football to basketball.” What he’s doing now “is just a product of living in the gym.”
“It’s all about confidence,” Harney says after long extra shooting sessions “with my dad.”
As for Bradshaw, he says it’s hard work – and chemistry. “We’re friends off the court and they know where I am on the court and get me the ball.” And now with all sorts of soft floaters, “Donny” as Thelen calls him, knows how to finish.
“Our first three years have been frustrating,” Bradshaw said of his recent obvious improvement in his game. “It’s working on it . . . and last month, it wasn’t win or go home. Now it is.”
As always, senior point guard McGillis, CovCath’s Mr. Basketball candidate, led the way with his 22 points, six rebounds and seven assists in propelling the Colonels downstate. “That’s been our goal all four years. The first mission is complete.”
And now for the next one—going against a tough Louisville St. Xavier team in the opening round of the Sweet 16 next Wednesday.
“We’ll be ready,” Thelen says of this team he loves to coach. “If I could coach them the rest of my life, I’d be fine with that.”
Ryle coach Nick Dorning may have been looking at a different result but with the same feeling for his Ryle team that was 4-6 after Christmas and then got themselves on a roll that had them put up the school’s winningest percentage with a 23-8 record, not to mention winning a school record 10 straight games and 19 of 21.
“We came in here thinking we were going to win this game,” Dorning said. Down 16 at halftime, 45-29, they thought “we weren’t out of it,” although foul trouble for Anthony Coppola and Grace Nsuti made it tough to come back. Which is why it took so long to say goodbye.
The turnaround was sparked, Dorning said, when “my wife said ‘You have great kids’. And I told them that when we got back from a tournament in Lexington.”
But they ran into “a really good defensive team,” Dorning said, outlining all the fundamental things CovCath does so well – staying in front of you, cutting off the angles, funneling people toward Bradshaw – that make it so difficult to stay in the game with them when they turn you over 16 times as they did Ryle.
“They speed you up. They’re really physical. And they’re really fast,” Dorning said of the Colonels. And that’s a problem.
But what this team has done “is nothing short of amazing for Ryle basketball,” Dorning said after a game in which junior guard Holden Smith battled for a game-high 18 points for the Raiders.
ALL-REGIONAL TOURNAMENT TEAM
Amil Wimzie, Highlands; Hunter Seng, Dixie Heights; Brady Gabbard, Holy Cross; Amontae Lowe, Newport; Finn Louden, Conner; Tyler Warner, Conner; Anthony Blaackar, Lloyd Memorial; Isiah Golsby, Lloyd Memorial; Anthony Coppola, Ryle; Holden Smith, Ryle; Athens McGillis, CovCath; Donovan Bradshaw, CovCath; and MVP Cash Harney, CovCath.
SCORING SUMMMARY
Ryle Raiders 16 13 13 9 -51
CovCath 23 22 21 16–82
Ryle (23-9): Colemire 2/3 2/3 0/0 1/2 5, Broz 0/6 0/2 0/4 0/0 0, Coppola 3/8 2/5 1/3 1/4 8, Davis 4/9 3/5 1/4 1/4 10, Smith 7/14 5/10 2/4 2/2 18, Verax 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0, Warner 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0,Haley 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Draine 0/1 0/0 0/1 0/0 0, Nsuti 5/6 5/6 0/0 0/0 10; Totals 21/49 17/33 4/16 5/12 51.
COVINGTON CATHOLIC (31-2): McGillis 8/18 7/12 1/6 5/7 22, Harney 6/14 3/8 3/6 0/0 15, Gaiser 1/3 1/2 0/1 1/2 3, Bradshaw 9/14 9/13 0/1 3/6 21, Bode 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Myrick 3/5 0/0 3/5 0/0 9, Courtney 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Myers 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Stava 4/5 3/4 1/1 3/4 12, Hoyt 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Brecount 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0; Totals 31/59 23/39 8/20 12/19 82.