The players on the Covington Catholic basketball team have never won a regional championship and played at Rupp Arena.
Visit cat-cross.com for more information.
Even though they were heavily favored to do so this week, the Colonels didn’t take it for granted and went out not to avoid losing, but to win.
Covington Catholic defeated Ryle 82-51 in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Ninth Region championship game March 10 at Truist Arena.
CovCath (31-2) won the region for the first time in four years, and will play in the state tournament next week. Ryle finishes 23-9.
“A dream, you know?” senior Donovan Bradshaw said. “We finally accomplished something. Our first three years, it was really stressful. So the senior year, we just flipped that switch and locked in. Going to Rupp. It's going to be really fun. I can't wait to play there.”
Said head coach Jake Thelen, “It’s a credit to our players. If I could coach this team for the rest of my life, I would, honestly. They're a pleasure to be around every day. They never complain. They just go out and do what they're supposed to do.”
Here are some keys to the game.
CovCath had a balanced offense
All five CovCath starters scored in the opening minutes of the game, giving the Colonels a 14-6 lead. Senior Athens McGillis scored 22 points with seven assists. Bradshaw had 21 points and 16 rebounds. Senior Cash Harney had 15 points and five assists. Teegan Stave scored 12 points and Braeden Myrick.
CovCath forced 10 turnovers in the first half and 16 for the game.
CovCath had 18 assists on 31 field goals, shooting 52.5% from the floor. Harney was the tournament MVP.
“(Harney's) been great all year,” Thelen said. “People have thought he hasn't had a great year because he's only averaging 10 points a game. He's had the best season he's ever had playing basketball. He defends. He rebounds. He makes the right play. He's passing the ball. He's not taking bad shots. So for him to get this moment is really awesome for him.”
Said Harney: “It’s all these guys. They all contributed. We haven't won anything. I haven't won anything these past four years, and that really lit a fire in me, lit a fire in our guys, and I feel like we showed that with these three games we played.”
CovCath beat Ryle by 21 earlier in the season.
Ryle head coach Nick Dorning said his team believed they could win, but it would be a tough matchup.
“The biggest thing is a lot of times, if you're playing a more physical team, you try to beat them with speed,” he said. “If you're playing a quicker team, you try to beat them with physicality. That's a team that has both. So, when you're both quick and have great team speed and great team physicality … they have the ability to speed you up, and then when you get downhill, they have the physicality to keep guys in front and protect the rim. That makes it really hard, really difficult to do what you want to do.”
CovCath senior center Donovan Bradshaw controlled the middle
Bradshaw, a 6-foot-8 center, made 9-of-14 shots and dished out four assists. He helped CovCath outrebound Ryle by 10, which wasn’t easy against talented junior post Grace Nsuti. Bradshaw said Thelen challenged him to win the boards tonight.
“(Nsuti’s) a great player,” Bradshaw said. “Probably one of the best bigs I played this year. I watched a lot of film today. Even throughout the week, I studied him. The first (game) against them, I didn’t think I played as well as I wanted, so I went to study about him and just did my job and executed.”
Said Thelen: “Donnie was locked and ready to go. None of it works without Donnie. He does such a good job. They've played together so long. I don’t have to tell him where to go. He knows where to be. They find him, and he just makes easy, open catches and shoot layups.”
History in the making for Covington Catholic and Athens McGillis
Athens McGillis finished the night with 22 points and 2,024 for his career. In the second half, he became the second CovCath player to reach the 2,000-point mark. Cole VonHandorf (2013-17) had 2,244. He passed Evan Ipsaro (1,987) and Nick Ruthsatz (1,980) during the tournament.
“It feels special, and it's something I've been pushing toward,” he said. “But winning the region, finally. The 2K definitely puts a cherry on top. Me, Cash and Donnie, we've been pushing everybody in practice like no other. We’ve been waiting for this, waiting for the trophy, and we finally got it.”
CovCath passed its own record for the largest average margin of victory in the Ninth Region Tournament since 2000. They won their three games by an average of 37.3 points, beating Dixie Heights by 30, 71-41, and Conner by 51, 92-41 before tonight.
The Colonels had the previous mark, winning the 2018 tournament by 30 points per game, including a 43-point win over Dixie Heights (74-31) on their way to winning a state championship led by C.J. Fredrick. The 31-point win was the largest margin of victory in a Ninth Region final since then. Before 2008, the largest was a 26-point win by Newport over Holmes in 2010 (60-34).
What’s next for Covington Catholic basketball in KHSAA tournament?
CovCath will face Seventh Region champion Louisville St. Xavier (26-7) in the first round of the UK HealthCare Boys Basketball Sweet 16. Tipoff is 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 18, at Rupp Arena.
Ryle senior salute
Ryle seniors are Anthony Coppola, A.J. Davis, Jerry Draine III, Sawyer Haley and Nathan Verax. Coppola and Davis were regular starters. Verax and Draine got on the floor in the final two minutes. Coppola is a baseball signee for George Washington and will be heading to the diamond soon to begin preparations for that season.
Ryle was in the regional final for the first time since Justin Doellman led the Raiders to the Sweet 16 in 2002. Ryle finished 23-9, the second-most wins behind that team’s 24. Ryle was 4-6 heading into the new year then won 10 straight in January, a team record. Dorning praised his team’s resilience after that start.
“We don't have anything to hang our heads about,” he said. “We came into this game thoroughly believing that we were going to win the game, and our kids believed the exact same thing. In a couple days, they'll be able to look back on what they were able to do and hopefully relish and take pride in the fact that they were able to turn around Ryle basketball after years of losing.”
KHSAA 2026 Ninth Region all-tournament team
Amil Wimzie, Highlands; Hunter Seng, Dixie Heights; Brady Gabbard, Holy Cross; Amontae Lowe, Newport; Finn Louden, Conner; Tyler Warner, Conner; Anthony Blaackar, Lloyd Memorial; Isiah Golsby, Lloyd Memorial; Anthony Coppola, Ryle; Holden Smith, Ryle; Covington Catholic – Athens McGillis, Donovan Bradshaw, Cash Harney (MVP)
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Covington Catholic defeats Ryle for Ninth Region boys basketball crown
Czytaj dalej u źródła
