By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
First-year Holy Cross basketball coach Ricardo Johnson needed no introduction to the man on the opposite bench in Tuesday night’s All “A” Classic quarterfinal action at Bellevue High School.
And no, it wasn’t just the fact that St. Henry’s Dave Faust is the all-time winningest Northern Kentucky high school basketball coach with 470 victories in his 32 seasons at the Erlanger school – 461 more than the former Holmes star Johnson has in his inaugural season in Latonia.
“Coach Faust sent me a hand-written note congratulating me on my first win,” said Johnson, whose Holmes High team won a state title in 2009 before he went on to play at Ohio U. on an NCAA Tournament team and then to Manchester, Tennessee-Martin and Xavier as a member of the basketball staffs.
Then he took a couple of years off to decide which way he wanted to take his life. “And then this job came open,” he said and the former Latonia resident made his pitch, talked to them about his vision for Holy Cross basketball. And here he was, coaching against Dave Faust. After getting that note.
“I do that to all the coaches,” said Faust, who salutes the fact that they’re following him – and maybe coming after him, as it were.
“Ricardo does a nice job,” Faust said of a Holy Cross team, now 10-4 with just one senior despite losing three starters including the state’s leading scorer Jacob Meyer — and their coach, Casey Sorrell — after last season. That 10th win came in Tuesday’s 63-40 romp over a St. Henry team that just could not find the basket no matter how hard the Crusaders tried.
It took the St. Henry 10 shots before hitting one and for the game, the Crusaders finished with just 15 of 48 (31.3 percent) from the field. Nor did it get better as the game went along, with St. Henry knocking down just six of 21 (28.6 percent) the second half.
“We just take advantage of what they give us,” Johnson said of his aggressive defenders who didn’t give the Crusaders many good looks. “We’re taking it one day at a time.” he said of his young team. And one rebound at a time, as well, grabbing 38 to St. Henry’s 25.
Sophomore Luke Arlinghaus led Holy Cross with 15 points, and most importantly hit both of his free throws. Why that matters is that he was leading the KHSAA in free throw shooting on 58 of 62 (93.5 percent), a figure that would also have him leading the NBA in free throw shooting. And as hard as it is to improve that 93.5 percent, if you don’t miss, you do.
Junior Jonah Crail added 12 points for Holy Cross while sophomore Nate Rominger recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Andrew Reis with 13 points and Brady Shea with 12 led St Henry (5-10).
Last year’s Indians took it all the way to the state finals, falling there to Evangel Christian. This year’s team earned the right to come back Friday in the semifinals against a Beechwood team that dispatched Villa Madonna in the second game.
BEECHWOOD GETS GOING AFTER INTERMISSION AGAINST VMA
Their defensive game plan was simple and straightforward, said first-year Beechwood head coach Ross Hart.
“Keep at least two bodies on Henry (Thole),” Hart said of Villa Madonna’s 6-foot-7 star, who was scoring 18.6 points a game and grabbing 13.4 rebounds. “He was definitely the focus of our defense, whether it was man-to-man or a 2-3 zone.”
Two seemed the minimum number paying attention to Thole, who finished with 12 points and six rebounds and managed to attempt just eight shots. There just wasn’t anywhere for the big lefty to go or any way to get him the ball as three other Vikings took as many or more shots as their 1000-point scorer did.
But none of them managed to reach double figures with Quinn Thomas hitting for nine points and Adam Brandstetter eight as VMA made just 16 of 43 (37.2 percent) of its field goal attempts.
While Beechwood (8-6) had just two players in double figures with sophomore Owen McCormack’s 13 and junior Carson Blackburn’s 12 leading the way, that’s not how they win games.
Hart noted that the difference in points off turnovers: “We outscored them 24-2 off turnovers,” Hart said of his quicker, more athletic defenders. And then there’s this.
“Our bench is very deep,” Hart said with five other Tigers scoring at least six points: Jack Sullivan and Ayden Way had nine each, Rett Dawson eight, Austin Navin seven and Kingston Brockett six. Two more had four points – Quinn Eviston and Tyler Fryman.
The stat that jumps out at you for Beechwood is how the Tigers hit 29 of 49 (59.2 percent) of their field goal attempts the way they converted defense to offense for runouts and layups.
Yes, that Tyler Fryman, the freshman football/baseball star who committed to Louisville for baseball as an eighth-grader and will almost certainly have big-time football opportunities after his freshman season as a wide receiver/defender/runner.
So yes, the Tigers, who have had just two of their first 50 practices with all players healthy, have things looking up. But first comes Holy Cross Friday.
HERITAGE DROPS OUT, NEWPORT GETS A BYE WEDNESDAY
Just one game Wednesday night in the All “A” Classic with Heritage a late dropout and big favorite Newport moving on to Friday’s semifinal against the winner of the Bellevue-Newport Central Catholic game.
HOLY CROSS-ST. HENRY SCORING SUMMARY
HOLY CROSS 12 24 18 9—63
ST. HENRY 7 18 6 9—40
HOLY CROSS (10-4): Jackson 0 0 0 0, Urlage 0 0 0 0, Arlinghaus 5 3 2 15, Crail 5 2 0 12, Rominger 4 0 2 10, Reinersman 2 0 1 5, Adams 2 0 0 4, Goetz 3 1 1 8, Hunt 0 0 0 0, TOTALS: 25-57 7-19 6-7 63.
ST. HENRY (5-10): C. Shea 1 0 0 2, Gross 0 0 0 0, Stigall 0 0 0 0, Hartman 0 0 0 0, J. Reis 2 1 0 5, Kunstek 4 0 0 8, Bessler 0 0 0 0, A. Reis 4 2 3 13, B. Shea 4 3 1 12, Helmie 0 0 0 0: TOTALS: 15-48 6-24 4-10 40.
VILLA MADONNA-BEECHWOOD SCORING SUMMARY
VILLA MADONNA 11 8 11 15—45
BEECHWOOD 18 11 22 21—72
VILLA MADONNA (6-9): Blackburn 5 1 1 12, Eviston 1 0 2 4, Dawson 4 0 0 8, Navin 3 1 0 7, Sullivan 3 2 1 9, McCormack 4 3 2 13, Way 4 1 0 9, Fryman 2 0 0 4, Brockett 3 0 0 6, Smith 0 0 0 0, Stiles 0 0 0 0: TOTALS: 29-49 8-19 6-10 72.