By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
After the Covington Catholic boys basketball team’s 17-game winning streak came to end last Tuesday, the players spent more than two hours the next day watching video from the game with the coaches pointing out defensive lapses that led to the loss.
The lengthy classroom critique had the desired effect on the Colonels. On Saturday afternoon, they turned in an impressive defensive performance and whipped Highlands, 65-39, in front of a capacity crowd at CovCath.
Highlands came into the game with the state’s highest scoring average (82.1), but the Bluebirds shot just 30.8 percent (12 of 39) from the field and finished with their lowest point total of the season.
“When you get the best athletes on both sides of the river you can do a whole lot of things defensively,” Highlands coach Kevin Listerman said of CovCath, the top-ranked team in Northern Kentucky since the beginning of the season.
“They rotate 10 (players), about the same as anybody else,” Listerman added. “They’ve just got good size coming off the bench that makes it difficult. We had some shots inside and just didn’t finish.”
Highlands (19-2) was ranked No. 2 behind CovCath (20-4) in the latest Northern Kentucky coaches poll. That’s why Saturday’s game drew a big crowd despite the unusual 4 p.m. tipoff.
The Colonels took a 20-9 lead in the first quarter and held off surges by the Bluebirds that cut the margin to six points (22-16) in the second quarter and eight points (38-30) in the third quarter. CovCath pulled away once again with a 15-2 run that put the home team ahead, 53-32, early in the fourth quarter and Highlands wasn’t able to mount another rally.
CovCath ended up shooting 57.5 percent (23 of 40) from the field with 21 assists. The team’s leading scorers were senior guard Grant Diskin with 25 points and senior center Neil Green with 17.
Diskin also did a commendable job on defense. He was assigned to guard Highlands junior Sam Vinson and held him to one field goal and seven points, 17 below his team-leading average.
“It comes down to Grant right off the get-go,” CovCath coach Scott Ruthsatz said of his team’s defensive effort. “He was face-guarding (Vinson) and staying low and making it real tough on him. He made a couple of great moves to the basket, but our help-side (defense) was strong and still made him take contested shots.”
The only double-figure scorer for Highlands was junior forward Luke Muller with 15 points. Early in the third quarter, he made his fourth 3-point goal to cut CovCath’s lead to 38-30. But Green then scored 11 points during CovCath’s decisive 15-2 run that carried into the fourth quarter.
Green and Diskin are the top returning players from last year’s 9th Region championship team. Most of the other players in CovCath’s rotation started the season with limited varsity experience or joined the team during the off-season.
The Colonels have climbed to the top of the Kentucky state power rankings with the revamped roster and they will likely stay there following the 26-point win over a Highlands team that was was ranked No. 15 in the state.
“In the locker room, we’re all really good friends and no one has a beef with anybody,” Diskin said. “We all know what we need to do to keep getting team victories like this one.”
HIGHLANDS 9 17 6 7 — 39
COVCATH 20 18 13 14 — 65
HIGHLANDS (19-2): Delagrange 3 1 7, Vinson 1 5 7, Muller 4 3 15, Ahlfed 2 1 5, Cody 2 0 5. Totals: 12 10 39.
COVCATH (20-4): Diskin 7 7 25, Stocks 3 0 6, Sommerkamp 2 0 5, Green 6 5 17, Starks 4 0 8, McHale 1 0 2, Horn 0 2 2. Totals: 23 14 65.
3-pointers: H — Muller 4, Cody. CC — Diskin 4, Sommerkamp.