By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Covington Catholic senior point guard Evan Ipsaro said he wasn’t feeling well at halftime of Tuesday’s home game against Holy Cross, but his team was three points behind and needed their floor leader to make a comeback.
Whatever was wrong with Ipsaro didn’t show in the third quarter when he scored 17 points during a 31-13 rally that put the Colonels in control and they went on to post an 86-66 win in the 35th District seeding game.
“I knew we really didn’t have a good first half and knew someone had to step up,” Ipsaro said. “And all my teammates put their trust in me and told me we got to get it going.”
Ipsaro finished with 28 points. He was one of five double-figure scorers for the 6-0 Colonels, who shot 50 percent (32 of 64) from the field with 10 3-point goals on their home court.
The leading scorer for Holy Cross (4-2) was senior guard Jacob Meyer with 33 points. But he only had one field goal and three free throws during the decisive third quarter when CovCath switched to a zone defense to limit his drives to the basket.
“The mantra of our team is we’ve got to be aggressive at both ends,” said CovCath Scott Ruthsatz. “We just didn’t do that in the first half. The second half we were much more aggressive.”
Meyer and Ipsaro were voted the top two players in Northern Kentucky in a preseason poll of local coaches. They entered Tuesday’s game with the top two scoring averages in the area. That was one of the reasons the matchup drew a capacity crowd.
“I always see the tweets before games, like Evan Ipsaro vs. Jacob Meyer, but it’s just a game,” Ipsaro said. “My goal isn’t to score more points than Jacob, it’s to beat them. You know, we got that done. I always see the tweets, but that’s not where my mind’s at. My mind’s on getting the win.”
There were nine lead changes in the first half. CovCath took a 24-18 lead in the first quarter when freshman guard Athens McGillis hit a pair of 3-point shots and scored 10 points. Holy Cross opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run and had a 36-33 lead at halftime.
The Colonels started their third-quarter rally with a 13-4 run that included nine points by Ipsaro. In the final two minutes of that period, the senior guard had eight points and two assists to help his team open up a 64-49 lead.
“He just came out as a warrior in the third quarter and set the tone,” coach Ruthsatz said of Ipsaro. “We said the first four minutes sets the tone. We’re only down three, we’re fine, so let’s go set the tone in the second half.”
CovCath’s list of double-figure scorers included junior guard Brady Hussey with 16 points, McGilliss (13) senior forward Aiden Jones (12) and senior guard Kascly McGillis (10). Jones also snagged a game-high nine rebounds.
Holy Cross shot 47.1 percent (24 of 51) from the field with nine 3-point goals. The other double-figure scorers for the Indians were senior guards Javier Ward and Jacob Smith with 11 points each.
CovCath has now won 13 straight games against Holy Cross. That streak began in the 2016 34th District final and the closet margin in any game since then has been 16 points.
COVCATH 24 9 31 22 — 86
HOLY CROSS 18 18 13 17 — 66
COVCATH (6-0): Ipsaro 12 3 28, A. McGillis 4 3 13, K. McGillis 4 0 10, Stewart 2 0 4, Hussey 5 2 16, Link 1 0 3, Jones 4 4 12. Totals: 32 12 86.
HOLY CROSS (4-2): Dreas 2 0 6, Ward 4 1 11, Smith 4 1 11, Meyer 12 6 33, Gibson 2 1 5. Totals: 24 9 66.
Three-point goals: CC — Hussey 4, A. McGillis 2, K. McGillis 2, Ipsaro, Link. HC — Meyer 3, Dreas 2, Ward 2, Smith 2.