By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
Entering
the weekend, all four Highlands and Newport Central Catholic basketball teams
remain alive in the 9th Region Tournament.
The
tournament continues Friday through Monday at the Bank of Kentucky Center on
the campus of Northern Kentucky University. The Highlands Ladybirds along with
the NewCath teams have already advanced to the region semifinals.
On Monday,
the Ladybirds took care of St. Henry by a count of 67-52. This marked the first
time Highlands has advanced past the region quarterfinals in consecutive years
since 2001 and 2002.
Highlands (23-7)
has a big hurdle to climb over if it is to make consecutive appearances in the
region title game since those two years. The Ladybirds need to end a six-game
losing streak to the rival Notre Dame Pandas (21-8) including a 63-44 defeat in
last year’s region title game. Highlands has not beaten Notre Dame since a
66-43 win in Fort Thomas on Jan. 4, 2010. Game time is Saturday at 6 p.m.
The
Ladybirds could use the balance they had in the win over St. Henry. They placed
four players in double-digits. McKenzie Leigh led the way with 21 points.
Brianna Adler, Alex Combs and Lydia Graves followed with 17, 13 and 10
respectively.
Notre Dame
came to Fort Thomas and beat Highlands, 67-59 without Louisiana State
University volleyball commit Elly Ogle on Jan. 10. Ogle had 11 points in Notre
Dame’s 58-40 semifinal win over Boone County on Monday. Teammates Paige Kellam
and Carlee Clemons led the way with 19 and 12 respectively. Kellam scored 17 in
the win at Highlands.
“We have to take care of the ball, rebound and plays
smarter than we did (Monday),” said
Jaime Walz-Richey, Highlands Head Coach. “(Notre
Dame first-year Head Coach) Wyatt (Faust) is a great coach. He is going to try
to come up with a good game plans against us.”
Free-throw
shooting has been a major strength for the Ladybirds. They are shooting near 70
percent for the season having made 454-of-651 attempts.
The second
game features another rematch of the Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds
(27-4) and Covington Holy Cross Lady Indians (21-7). It takes place at 7:30
p.m. Saturday.
NewCath has
to beat Holy Cross a third time to advance to the region title game for the
first time since winning it in 2011. The Thoroughbreds downed the Lady Indians,
39-37 on Jan. 17 in the All “A” 9th Region semifinals when Michaela Ware hit a
lay-up in the final seconds. NewCath dominated the Feb. 8 meeting on The Hill
by a 62-43 count.
The
Thoroughbreds are led by senior Nikki Kiernan. She entered postseason play
averaging 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds a game. Kiernan had 22 points and 13
rebounds in NewCath’s 65-55 win over Conner on Tuesday. Kiernan has scored
1,806 points in her career.
All five
starters scored at least seven points in the win for the Thoroughbreds. They
may need that balance against Holy Cross.
“It is very difficult to beat a team three times,” said George Stoll, NewCath Head Coach. “We have our work cut out for us. We have
to come ready to play. If we come out like we did (Monday), we’re going home
with a loss.”
The Lady
Indians are led by 6-foot-1-inch junior twins Ally and Cessie Mayhaus. Ally
Mayhaus had 13 points in Holy Cross’ 41-28 win over Dixie Heights on Tuesday.
Teammate Dajah McClendon followed with 12.
Boys Notes:
The
Highlands Bluebirds (9-14) take on Covington Holmes (26-5) on Friday in the
region quarterfinals. Game time is 8 p.m.
Highlands
has gone 9-8 since an 0-6 start to the season. The main goal for the Bluebirds
entering the season was to get here. But a quarterfinal win would add another
building block to the rebuilding process.
The
Bluebirds had balanced scoring in the 36th District semifinal win over Newport
with four players reaching double figures. Parker Harris led the way with his
first of two double-doubles in the tournament. Justin Weyer, Brendan Buten and
Drew Houliston helped out making outside shots.
Holmes is
led by point guard James “Beetle” Bolden. The Bulldogs beat the Bluebirds just
63-52 on Feb. 7 in Fort Thomas.
NewCath
(29-3) hopes to equal last year’s win total and advance to the region title
game. But the Thoroughbreds have to get past Covington Catholic (26-2) to do
that Sunday at Noon.
That will
not be easy. Point guard Nick Ruthsatz leads the Colonel attack and his
teammates feed off him. CovCath likes to attack opponents off the dribble.
“(Ruthsatz) is as good of a point guard as there is,” said Ron Dawn, NewCath Head Coach. “Then they have a ton of shooters. I don’t
know who you help off of. It is going to be a battle. That’s for sure.”
But during
their 22-game winning streak, no one has been able to slow down the
inside-outside game for the Thoroughbreds. Ben Weyer, Drew McDonald and Jake
Schulte give many people fits with their size standing at 6-foot-5-inches and
taller.
“Ruthsatz makes them go,” McDonald said. “We’re
just going to have to stop penetration and get hands up on shots. He is going
to get his points. We can’t let others go for 20 or more.”
But then
you add Zack Pangallo and Mac Franzen along with brothers Grant and Tanner
Moeves and that makes NewCath even tougher to defend because all three can
light it up from outside. Weyer and McDonald are not afraid to pop out and hit
outside shots as well.
The title
game occurs Monday at 7 p.m. NewCath is seeking its first region crown since
2000 and Highlands its first title since 2001.
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