By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
Two stats are all you need to know to figure out why Newport’s top-ranked Ninth Region Wildcats did not suffer a toxic letdown Tuesday against a much-improved Boone County team after Friday’s big win over two-time defending Ohio State champ Richmond Heights, ending that team’s 49-game win streak.
Just two stats.
The Wildcats had 24 assists on 31 baskets and 13 steals to Boone County’s two. That’s it.
No way you get caught looking ahead to the rest of a very busy week with a rescheduled Dixie Heights game Thursday before the John Turner Classic headliner Saturday against the Ninth Region’s No. 2 Covington Catholic.
“Twenty-four on 31?” Newport Coach Rod Snapp repeated the numbers for his now 2-0 team after Tuesday’s 73-60 home win on the Stan Arnzen Court . “That’s huge. We talk about it every day after practice.”
What they don’t have to talk about, Snapp says, after a summer and offseason of nothing but basketball, basketball and more basketball playing in every league, tourney, exhibition and camp they could get to.
“These guys really trust one another,” Snapp said of his defending region champs.
No one has to be the star . . . even though everybody knows that 6-foot-1 sophomore Taylen Kinney, with scholarship offers from Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Illinois, Cincinnati, Louisville, Xavier, Dayton and Ohio State among others, is just that. The 27 points he fired in against Richmond Heights and its three Division I guard prospects validated every one of those.
But on this night, powerful 6-3 senior guard DeShaun Jackson – DJ they call him – was the big scorer with 21 points. Not that scoring was an issue with all five Newport starters in double figures with Kinney adding 14, DaShawn Anderson and Jabari Covington 12 each and 6-7 sophomore James Turner 11.
“DJ had a very good summer,” Snapp said. “He’s big and strong and fast and always plays with a high motor. He’s a very awkward matchup for defenders.”
Like the rest of the Wildcats, who benefited from those 24 assists, DJ knew the ball would find him as the Wildcats kept the pressure on, taking the ball to the basket in a hurry every chance they got.
Kinney, with length of the court passes and blind around-a-defender bounces, had nine of those assists. Covington added seven. Eight of those resulted in dunks with four starters getting at least one for the Wildcats.
Kinney not only led Newport in assists but also in rebounds with eight. And then there were his two steals as often the Wildcats would jump out of their zone to double-team a dribbler and strip him before he knew what hit him. Although big man Turner topped Newport with six steals as well as five (of the team’s six) blocked shots.
Asked what he’s improved on most in an offseason that’s been highlighted by college visits (Purdue might have been his favorite, Kinney says of the recently No. 1-ranked Boilermakers), “I think my defense,” Kinney says. “I’m better defending now.”
And when your top scorer (he was averaging 25.5 points a game coming into Tuesday) wants to talk about his defense, your team is in a pretty good place.
Which is where it better be in this early challenge of a three-game week followed by next week’s two games against Ryle and Huntington (W. Va.) Prep and the nation’s No. 2 prospect – Darryn Peterson – at the Griffin Elite Basketball Classic Friday, Dec. 15, at 9 p.m. at the Griffin Elite Sports and Wellness Complex in Erlanger.
“I don’t like the three-game week,” Snapp said of this week’s schedule, “but we had to move the Dixie game to be able to play Huntington Prep next week.”
Which is what this Newport team is all about, Snapp and his players say.
“Just go out and play hard,” Kinney said. And . . . “play defense. And rebound.” Like they did Tuesday night. “We didn’t shoot it that well,” he said, although they did hit 50 percent (31 of 62) from the field with Kinney showing off the three-point range he’s worked so hard on with three of six from long range.
A 3-1 Boone County, with an all-senior starting five, had a long-range game of its own, led by the 18 points of Mason Hall and the 17 of Thomas Williams who combined for seven of the Rebels’ nine three-pointers.
In a game that saw Boone pull to within one, 19-18, with just over five minutes left in the first half, the Rebels then watched the stealing and stuffing Wildcats go on a 17-5 run to intermission after that. Boone would trail by 22 – 69-47 – before closing things with their three-point shooting. Boone is off until next Tuesday when the Rebs host Augusta.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
BOONE CO 9 14 19 18—60
NEWPORT 15 21 16 21—73
BOONE COUNTY (3-1): Williams 6-3-2-17, Burks 3-0-0-6, Moore 0 0 0 0, Bodkin 3-0-2-11, Hall 7-4-0-18, Jones 3-0-2-8, Brayden 0-0-0-0, TOTALS: 22-9-7-60.
NEWPORT: Kinney 5-3-1-14, Anderson 5-0-2-12, Covington 5-0-2-12, Jackson 10-1-0-21, Turner 5-0-1-11, Starks 1-0-0-2, Silverton 0-0-1-1, TOTALS: 31-4-7-73.