By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
• WILDCATS GET IT DONE: Great weekend news for the Newport Wildcats. Not only did they win a pair of big games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, in two places 60 miles apart, they learned that blue-chip prospect Taylen Kinney’s foot injury was not a fracture and the sophomore guard and leading scorer should be back as soon as the pain allows him.
But this was a Newport team carried by its defense, allowing a pair of good opponents an average of 42.5 points a game. Start with Saturday’s 62-43 Ninth Region All “A” Classic championship win over Holy Cross, just the second All “A” championship in history for the Wildcats. Then add in the 55-42 win over a traditionally powerful Middletown, Ohio, team at the Beacon Orhtopaedics Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational at the Trent Arena in Kettering, Ohio, without Kinney.
Then there were the scholarship offers that came the way of freshmen Griffin Starks and Amontae Lowe from Ohio U. at the Flyin’-to-the-Hoop Sunday and all in all, it’s been a pretty good weekend for Rod Snapp’s young guys, now 16-3, with a date at the Corbin Arena, Thursday, Jan. 25, at 8:45 a.m. in the first game of the Boys’ State All “A” Classic against a good Lexington Sayre team.
That matchup will require Newport moving the Campbell County game, scheduled for Jan. 24, to another date to be determined, Snapp says.
• COVCATH ON TOP, TOO: Another win for Northern Kentucky against a top Ohio team came Sunday for Covington Catholic as it held on to beat Lakota East, 60-59, in the Beacon Orthopaedics Tri-Health Holiday Hardwood Classic at Xavier’s Cintas Center.
Highlighting CovCath’s 13th win against four losses were a school record nine blocked shots by 6-9 senior center Caden Miller and the 19 points from Athens McGillis and 14 from Cash Harney as the sophomore guards hit on 13 of 23 field goals for a CovCath team that hit 22 of 41 (53.7 percent) from the field for the game. After building up a 33-21 halftime lead, the Colonels held off a 22-13 fourth-quarter rush by Lakota East for the win with nine of 10 free throw shooting for the game.
CovCath returns to action Tuesday at Eighth Region power Walton-Verona (14-5).
• COOPER COMES THROUGH: After losing 57-52 to district rival Ryle Friday, Cooper’s Jaguars bounced back with a 79-63 win at the Holiday Hardwood Classic at Xavier over Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy as Northern Kentucky made it three for three against Ohio schools Sunday.
• NORTHERN KENTUCKY STREAK ENDS AT 3: Highlands ran into a strong-defending Cincinnati Moeller team Sunday with the 9-9 Bluebirds falling 55-27 to the Crusaders.
In another game of interest from the Sunday Holiday Hardwood Classic Kentucky-Ohio scoreboard, Georgetown’s Great Crossing, No. 1 in Kentucky, beat Cincinnati Princeton, 79-74.
• NKU MEN HEADING HOME: After a tough lake-effects-snow week with close Horizon Conference losses at Cleveland State (88-85) and Oakland (70-65), the Norse got back on the winning side of the ledger at Detroit Mercy with an 81-76 win Saturday that improves them to 9-9 overall (just 3-8 on the road) and 4-3 in the conference.
LJ Wells and Trey Robinson, with 20 points each, led the offense against Detroit. Marques Warrick added 16 with Keeyan Itejere 14 in a game NKU took a 35-30 halftime lead and made it stand up with each team scoring 46 points in the second half.
NKU will be at home this week to Milwaukee (9-8, 4-2) in a 7 p.m. game Thursday and then on Saturday, in a 6:30 game against Green Bay (11-8, 6-2), NKU will honor the school’s retired basketball coaching greats — Kenney Shields and Nancy Winstel – with banners recognizing each of their career achievements raised during the men’s game for Shields and the women’s game for Winstel.
The NKU women (2-13) will tip off at 4 p.m. against Wright State in a Saturday doubleheader after facing Robert Morris Wednesday at Truist at 7 p.m.
• TMU MEN LOOKING TO BREAK LOSING STREAK: After losing a pair of Great Midwest Athletic Conference road games and one at home Saturday against Hillsdale, 73-65, the Saints stay home to host Malone University Thursday at 7 at the Connor Convocation Center. TMU is 10-7 overall and 5-4 in the G-MAC.
With his eight points against Hillsdale, grad student Reid Jolly has 2,089 career points, passing the 2,078 of Brian O’Conner for second all-time for TMU behind only the 2,605 of Rick Hughes, who played from 1992 through 1996.
• TMU WOMEN HIT THE ROAD AGAIN: After losing 69-60 at home to Hillsdale Saturday, the Saints women’s (10-6, 6-3 G-MAC) are back on the road for the third and fourth time in the last five games, heading north toward Lake Erie for games at Ursuline College (Pepper Pike, Ohio) Thursday (5:30 p.m.) and Lake Erie College (Painesville, Ohio) Saturday (3 p.m.).
Alex Smith, with 15 points, and Rachel Martin and Rylee Turner, with 12 each, led TMU against Hillsdale in a game where TMU fell behind by 10 at the half and never could make up the difference.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @dweber3440.