By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
They’re back, well part of the way anyway.
Back to giving themselves a chance to defend both their Ninth Region All-A and state Classic titles from 2024.
Back to beating up on Ninth Region opponents.
Back to having a one-of-a-kind guard leading them into Saturday’s All-A Classic region championship.
“I do think we can win it again,” Newport Coach Rod Snapp was saying after Friday’s running clock 69-28 semifinal win over Ludlow’s completely outmanned Panthers at Dayton.
But the “it” Snapp is talking about winning isn’t this week’s All-A Classic. Nope, This is about that other Ninth Region title, the one for all the schools – big and little. That’s the focus for his 9-6 Wildcat team, he says, winning the Ninth Region again and heading back to the Sweet 16.
Although there is one reason Snapp would like to make that All-A title trip again, the one that ends up in Owensboro at the end of the month. “I’d like to see us make that run for Yamil to get to do it with us,” Snapp said of senior transfer Yamil Rondon, playing in just his second game for Newport after rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery.
But this was hardly like his 25-point initial effort last week against Walton-Verona. “I really struggled tonight,” Rondon said, pointing out his o-fer from three-point range – 0 for six.
“He looks to pass first,” Snapp says. Not a problem since he’s still favoring that shoulder a bit, his coach says. And he did have a game-high seven assists for a Newport team with him getting things going is playing really fast. No half-court standing around for these guys.
“We’re trying to,” Snapp says of his team that led 64-22 after three quarters before playing with a running clock and backups the final quarter. “We like to get the ball down inside.”
Which is where Rondon with his tip passes and lefty cross-court and behind-the-back efforts that would make Bob Cousy proud, although no way you’d expect the Under-17 Puerto Rico National team player to know who the flashy-passing Boston Celtic great from the 1960s was. “I know who Bob Cousy is,” Yamil says.
There’s a reason – make that two of them for sure – that allows Rondon to be a pass-first guy. They’re 6-7 junior James Turner, who keeps showing his Division I chops game after game and 6-8 sophomore Griffin Starks.
With Rondon getting the ball up the court in a hurry or penetrating in the half-court, the big guys knocked down a combined 13 of 15 shots – seven of them dunks – with 6-3 DeShawn Anderson coming off the bench to nail six of 10 including one dunk.
“It’s exciting,” Yamil says, “We didn’t have that when I was at Cooper.”
And against a scrappy Ludlow team, with an entire roster of guards, there just wasn’t much the Panthers, 10-6 coming into this game, could do. If there was any doubt, the Wildcats opened with three straight dunks to make it clear they were playing in a place above the rim where Ludlow could not venture.
There was one more place Ludlow didn’t get to: the free throw line. The Panthers didn’t get a single free throw as the Wildcats didn’t need to foul out of their zone. And the Panthers hit on just two of 20 from three-point range trying to shoot over it
The win matches up Newport against a Beechwood team “that’s playing better than us,” Snapp says of the way the tough-minded Tigers (10-5) beat Newport Central Catholic 69-58 in the second semifinal Friday.
SCORING SUMMARY
LUDLOW 10 8 4-6—28
NEWPORT 24 14 26 5—69
LUDLOW (10-7): L. Yates 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Edwards 01 0-0 0-0 0, Brandenburg 1-5 1-6 0-0 5, Stone 0-1 0-1 0-0 0, Day 3-5 0-2 0-0 6, Conley 3-14 2-4 1-10 0-0 7, Engleman 0-2 0-1 0-0 0, R. Yates 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Scott 1-10 1-10 0-0 2, Grider 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Turner 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Brock 3-8 3-7 0-1 0-0 6, Crafton 0-1 0-1 0-0 0; TOTALS: 13-54 11-34 2-20–28.
NEWPORT (9-6): Anderson 6-10 5-8 1-2 1-2 14, Crenshaw 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Turner 8-9 7-8 1-1 19, Starks 5-6 5-5 0-1 10, Lianes 1-3 0-0 1-3 3, Rondon 3-10 3-4 0-6 0-0 6, Nichols 2-4 1-3 1-1 0-0 5, Lee 1-3 -1-1 0-2 0-0 2, Hurry 1-4 1-4 0-0 0-0 2, Lowe 4-8 4-5 0-3 0-0 8; TOTALS: 31-58 27-38 4-20 0-3 0-0—69.