By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Only two districts in Louisville and one in Lexington have a better record than Kenton County’s 35th District in Boys’ basketball has in the state tournament for multiple teams. Two different 35th District teams have won three Sweet 16 state championships between them.
That’s two for Covington Catholic (2014, 2018) and one (should have been two and yeah, we’re never letting that 1978 Shelby County game go) for Covington Holmes (2009). And way back in 1964, George Schneider’s Holy Cross Indians made it all the way to the championship game.
So when late February and early March comes around, this is often the place to be. And where we were Wednesday night. At host Beechwood this year where the top four teams matched up in a doubleheader, separate admissions, that had an overflow crowd standing in the aisles for Game 2.
But first, in a matchup between top-seeded CovCath and fourth-seeded Holmes, if you saw their regular season game—an 80-35 CovCath romp, you had a good idea of what might happen in this one. And still, it was worthwhile. For the now 22-8 Colonels, after their 87-44 win, it was the perfect tune-up for the Ninth Region showdown starting Sunday, March 11, at NKU’s Truist Arena.
COVCATH 84, HOLMES 47: What a terrible matchup for a vastly improved Holmes team that finished 2-22 a year ago and 3-22 the year before going 15-13 in the regular season this season. CovCath’s quickness and sound fundamental defense all over the court was simply too much for Holmes’ Bulldogs.
“I just thanked them for saving the program,” first-year Holmes coach Sam Elsbernd, a Holmes alum who came back from the 10th Region, said after the game. “I told them the first time we met, we’re done backing off people.”
Unfortunately, CovCath’s swarming, ball-hawking defenders who could turn defense into offense in the blink of an eye, aren’t those kinds of “people.” But they are “what we’re shooting for,” Elsbernd said of a team like CovCath that had seven steals in the first quarter while allowing the Bulldogs just one field goal – and that not until Holmes’ Terry Kutcher hit a layup with just 23.2 seconds left in the opening period.
CovCath coach Jake Thelen didn’t disagree.
“Holmes is unbelievably improved since the first time we played them,” he said, “their coach is doing unbelievable things with them. Their fans should be proud.”
Not that Thelen wasn’t feeling pretty good about his Colonels, who may have played the state’s toughest schedule. And with at times five guards on the floor, CovCath hits you with scorers Athens McGillis (21 points) and Cash Harney (a game-high 24 points after 18 in the first half on his football slashes to the glass.
And no, this scoring splurge wasn’t a first for Harney, who started varsity as a Beechwood eighth-grader and freshman and once had 26 points on this floor.
“I think this builds confidence for us,” Harney said, “but we still could have started off better.” CovCath did score 35 points off 24 Holmes’ turnovers while the Bulldogs managed just four off CovCath’s 11. The Colonels also outscrapped the Bulldogs, 47-25, on the boards.
With a running clock after the lead reached 36 points, “It’s always good to get everybody in,” Thelen said of clearing his 11-man bench with a sub like senior Dolan Whelan scoring his first field goal of the season to the wild cheers of his teammates.
SCORING SUMMARY
Holmes 6 17 9 12—44
CovCath 19 26 26 16 87
HOLMES (15-14): Meyer 4/11 2/5 2/6 1/2 11, Kutcher 2/7 2/6 0/1 0/0 4, Clifford 0/2 0/1 0/1 0/0 0, Whitfield 1/3 1/2 0/1 2/4 4, Mayes 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0, Kirk 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Chames 1/3 0/2 1/1 1/2 4, Garcia 1/1 1/1 0/0 0/0 2, Scott 4/5 4/5 0/0 1/2 9, McCutchen 2/9 2/9 0/0 3/6 7, Rhodes 1/2 0/0 1/2 0/0 3, Jennings 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Foster 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0; Totals 16/44 12/32 4/12 8/16 44.
COVCATH (22-8): McGillis 8/15 8/12 0/3 5/5 21, Gaiser 0/4 0/4 0/0 0/0 0, Harney 11/15 10/12 1/3 1/3 24, Stewart 1/2 1/1 0/1 1/2 3, Carroll 1/3 0/1 1/2 0/0 3, Courtney 0/0 0/0 0/0 1/2 1, Bradshaw 4/10 4/10 0/0 2/2 10, Stava 1/4 0/2 1/2 2/2 5, Kruer F 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Whelan 1/3 0/2 1/1 0/0 3, Justice 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Ruthsatz 2/4 2/3 0/1 0/0 4, Myers 2/2 2/2 0/0 0/0 4, Lanham 2/6 2/4 0/2 3/5 7, Hussey 1/2 1/1 0/1 0/0 2; Totals 34/70 30/54 4/16 15/21 87.
HOLY CROSS 76, BEECHWOOD 57: Not all that much a surprise when you realize Beechwood lost its leading scorer and rebounder, Jack Sullivan, a week ago to a broken foot in a noncontact practice injury.
“He had surgery to put a pin in it Wednesday morning and still made it out to the game,” Beechwood coach Ross Hart said. And cheered his teammates on from crutches in a boot. “Pretty awesome,” Hart said. ”
Just don’t say that to Holy Cross coach Ricardo Johnson, who has had plenty of injuries on his Indians’ team to contend with as the two Class A powers split in the regular season with Beechwood winning the one that counted that allowed the Tigers to win the Ninth Region All A Classic Tournament over the likes of both Newport and Holy Cross.
“In our 93-year history, we’d never gone to the region three straight years,” Hart said of the streak that continues. “That was our slogan, that we were going to make history. Only we made it by winning the All A.”
“We handled adversity,” Johnson said, both on Wednesday night “on the road,” in front of the packed house in Fort Mitchell although as loud as the Beechwood half of the crowd was, the Tiger fans couldn’t shout down the equally loud and large Holy Cross fans.
“Our students were awesome,” said Holy Cross leading scorer Brady Gabbard, “they were so loud.”
In the game early, the Indians fell behind 19-10 early in the second quarter to the Carson Blackburn-led Tigers. “I can’t say enough about Carson,” Hart said, as the senior guard fired in a game-high 22 points despite having to leave the game before returning with a left wrist injury.
Johnson had lots of folks to praise as the Indians just fought for every square inch on the floor, making life tough for Beechwood’s ballhandlers, who don’t have a true point guard and in games like this, often turned to the 6-2 ½ Sullivan to bring the ball up.
“I’d have done the same thing,” Hart said after already losing returning center Austin Navin to offseason knee surgery – and then the play-everywhere Sullivan.
By the time this was over, “We were just gassed,” Hart said, “we don’t have a lot of ballhandlers.”
And Holy Cross, on a 35-9 run after falling behind 19-10, did. And defenders. And rebounders and scorers, first of all, the 6-6 junior Gabbard, who started out missing from outside and was urged by his coaches to take it to the hoop.
“My coaches trusted me,” Gabbard said after taking the ball to the hoop once so hard out of the offense that by the time he got there, he just flew by a defender for a two-handed dunk that had the Indian crowd dancing in the aisles.
The Holy Cross players also trusted themselves after the struggling start. “We can all shoot it,” Gabbard said, “and we don’t force stuff.” The first of those was guard Luke Arlinghaus, who knocked down 14 points to fuel the run and then senior William McElheney, who pulled down 10 rebounds while scoring 13 points, hitting 11 of 14 free throws down the stretch.
And now on to CovCath Friday at 7 at Beechwood with both teams advancing to the regional.
SCORING SUMMARY
Beechwood 13 10 14 20—57
Holy Cross 12 14 27 23—76
BEECHWOOD (16-12): Blackburn 7-13 1-3 7-7 22, McCormack 4-7 4-6 4-4 16, Way 1-4 0-1 1-2 4, Smith 0-1 0-0 2-2 2, Brockett 1-7 0-3 1-2 5, Popham 1-2 0-1 0-0 2, Coppage 1-3 1-3 0-0 3, Yeager 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Topmiller 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Moore 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Hammons 0-0 0-0 0-2 0, Navin 0-0 0-0 2-2 2, Stephenson 1-1 1-1 0-0 3; Totals: 16-38 7-18 18-21 57.
HOLY CROSS (17-10): Urlage 3-4 1-2 0-0 7, Arlinghaus 4-8 2-5 4-5 14, Rominger 3-10 1-2 4-4 11, Gabbard 8-12 0-3 3-5 11, Gabbard 8-12 0-3 3-5 19, McElheney 1-4 0-0 11-14 13, Crail 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Henderson 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Adams 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Goetz 3-5 2-4 0-0 8, Thornberry 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Hunt 1-1 0-0 0-0 2; Totals: 24-46 6-16 22-28 76.