By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
So many story lines in the Ninth Region All “A” Classic championship game Saturday. Several of them went the Newport’s way. One did not.
First, there was the chance for Newport’s Wildcats to get back at a Holy Cross team that denied them this championship a year ago.
Mission accomplished with Newport’s smothering defensive effort providing a comfortable 62-43 win that will send Newport to Corbin for the state All “A” Classic Thursday, Jan. 25, at 8:30 a.m. against 11th Region winner Lexington Sayre.
Another story here was how Newport kept on doing what it almost always does: The Wildcats make you play faster than you want to while they themselves don’t have to play that way – unless they want to.
Which they do, on defense and in transition every time they get the chance.
But then comes the negative.
Major college blue-chip sophomore prospect Taylen Kinney came down on the outside of his left foot in a pileup under the basket and exited the game in the second quarter after having played just 9:21, eventually to return to the floor from the trainer’s room with help before exiting after the game on crutches.
His teammates — senior guard and Classic MVP Jabari Covington and freshman Amonte Lowe stepped in as Coach Rod Snapp was pretty sure they would.
But this was on a night when the Wildcats came out with warmup shirts saying “PLAY FOR KIERRA” in memory of Taylen’s 25-year-old cousin, Kierra Lane, a mother with two young children who was murdered last week in Covington. “LONG LIVE KIERRA,” was emblazoned on the other side of the shirts.
But those were for a game that while Taylen, Newport’s leading scorer, did not get to play this out, his “brothers” did for him, Covington said. As did Snapp. “That’s how they think about themselves.”
It’s why senior DeShaun Jackson transferred this year from Cincinnati Taft, he said. “These are my brothers. I’ve known most of them since I was 6 or 7.”
So “when our players said they wanted to get the shirts made up, I said we’d all wear them,” Snapp responded.
And then they all played for Kierra. “It was for Tay’s cousin,” Covington said. And then it was for Tay, as well.
And while Snapp said that Saturday would be a very long time for his team, waiting all day to get the chance to avenge last year’s loss, the next 24 were not going to be.
That’s because Newport is scheduled to face Middletown, Ohio, at the Trent Arena in Kettering, Ohio, at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. And do so without Kinney, whose injury had yet to be X-rayed or diagnosed with any specificity as he departed Ben Flora Gym on crutches.
Not that there would be much time for all of that. The Wildcats were going to be meeting on Sunday’s game plan when they got back to school Saturday night.
Don’t ask Snapp about anything else coming up. He’s good to go through Sunday “but that’s it,” he says. Although he does know the Wildcats are off school Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Oh, and he knows that playing an 8:30 a.m. game in the state All-“A” Classic in Corbin will mean that they’ll probably have to stay there night before. But that’s for another day before they figure that out.
Saturday’s game in front of an SRO crowd was about showing up against a tough-minded Holy Cross team (11-4 coming into the game) that reflects the personality of first-year coach Ricardo Johnson. But with no senior starters, going against an aggressive, scrambling, over-playing everything Newport defense was too much to ask.
“They sped us up,” Johnson said. “In order to be a good team, you’ve got to be able to handle the pressure.” With 13 turnovers to Newport’s five, the Indians could not.
“Score on transition and get to the rim or we slow it down,” said the 6-2 Covington on the way to a 16-point game that coupled with his 20-point effort against NewCath Friday earned him MVP honors. But right now, his only college offer is at the junior college level and that would seem to be a miss for the leader of this 15-3 Newport team with two sophomores and two freshmen on the top six.
One of those freshmen came up big for Newport — 6-foot-8, 180-pound Griffin Starks, who came over from Cincinnati’s Anderson High and recorded team highs with 18 points and six rebounds. Jackson not only had 13 points but got in the passing lanes for a team-high five of Newport’s 12 steals.
Holy Cross, meanwhile, managed just two steals. Newport won the rebounding battle, 31-24. And outshot Holy Cross from the field, 48.8 percent (22 of 45) to 34.0 percent (16 of 47).
Senior Carson Reinersman used his bulk inside to lead Holy Cross with 13 points. Sophomore Nate Rominger added 10.
NINTH REGION ALL ‘A’ CLASSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
• Landon Graham, Dayton
• Spencer Brandenburg, Ludlow
• Andrew Reis, St. Henry
• Jase Iles, Bellevue
• Zach Mertens, Bellevue
• Caleb Eaglin, NewCath
• Carson Blackburn, Beechwood
• Nate Rominger, Holy Cross
• Will McElheney, Holy Cross
• DeShaun Jackson, Newport
• Griffin Starks, Newport
• MVP Jabari Covington, Newport
SCORING SUMMARY
NEWPORT (15-3) 14 11 14 23–62
HOLY CROSS (11-5) 9 11 9 15—43
NEWPORT: Kinney 0 0 0 0, Anderson 1 0 0 2, Covington 6 1 3 16, Turner 2 1 3 8, Starks 7 1 3 18, Silverton 0 0 0 0, Lowe 1 0 1 3, Thompson 0 0 0 0, Nichols 0 0 2 2, Lee 0 0 0 0: TOTALS: 22-45 3-13 15-22 62.
HOLY CROSS: Arlinghaus 2 2 3 9, Crail 0 0 0 0, Rominger 3 0 4 10, Reinersman 6 1 0 13, Gabbard 0 0 0 0, Goetz 0 0 0 0, McElheney 4 0 1 9, Hunt 0 0 0 0: TOTALS: 16-47 4-16 7-7 43.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.