Anthony Blaackar is the unquestioned star of the Lloyd Memorial boys basketball team this season. The senior guard averages 24.5 points per game.
In Lloyd’s quarterfinal game with Holy Cross in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Ninth Region Tournament March 7 at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena, he didn’t get going until the team already had a good lead. He helped the Juggernauts extend it as they defeated Holy Cross 63-50.
Lloyd, 23-4, advances to the semifinals March 8. Holy Cross finishes 21-10.
Blaackar didn’t score until midway through the second quarter. The Juggernauts already led by double digits and took an 18-point lead into the locker room at halftime, 33-15. Blaackar finished with 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists, plus two blocks and three steals.
“I think that just shows that people might be overlooking everybody else on the team. That was a team effort. That’s something we’ve been preaching all year. Nothing is too big for them out there,” head coach Mike Walker said.
Sophomore Jason Kabeya had 12 points. Junior Isaiah Coleman added 10 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Colten Barger scored 8 and senior Isiah Golsby had 6 with five rebounds and three assists.
“I don’t have to force nothing,” Blaackar said. “Just be a playmaker, create for my teammates. I know they’ll finish it and score and do what needs to be done so we can win. They know I don’t like being face-guarded. They bite me, scratch me, tickle me, whatever they can do.”
Lloyd was underrated at the start of the season after losing star center E.J. Walker to the University of South Carolina. The Juggernauts proved those doubters wrong by reaching the semifinals for the fourth straight year.
Lloyd limited Holy Cross senior point guard Luke Arlinghaus to 9 points and two assists. Coach Mike Walker said he was the focus of the defensive game plan. Senior Brady Gabbard scored 24 points including at least three dunks.
“We lost a lot, but my staff does a (heck) of a job with skill development and just development overall,” Walker said. “Just kudos to the parents and the kids. It’s a little emotional because the community where we come from, a lot of people look down on it. And it’s a blessing coaching these kids and just seeing them every day. They fight and fight and love to work hard and love to practice. So hopefully this thing keeps going.”
Said Blaackar: “Everybody was counting us out already, but we know we’ve worked hard. We’ve worked hard since last season ended. It was a quick turnaround, and we’ve been working ever since then. We trust our guys, trust our work that we’ve been doing.”
Ryle reaches semifinals for first time in 15 years
Ryle is in the Ninth Region semifinals for the first time since 2011 after a 56-46 win over Newport in the fourth quarterfinal game.
The Raiders (22-8) face Lloyd in the second semifinal at 8 p.m. Sunday night. Newport finishes 21-10.
The win continues a milestone season for the Raiders, a team that won their first district championship since 2014 and are enjoying their most wins in a season since the 2002 Ninth Region champions won 24.
“This team is just great,” senior guard Anthony Coppola said. “We’re moving well together, we’re playing well together, and it’s showing. Talent, friendships, chemistry, our core. We’re all trusting each other.”
Head coach Nick Dorning said this is a special group.
“We know what we have in our locker room. They believe in each other. They all execute their roles. We have a really good leader (Coppola), and everybody buys in. They’ve been super loyal and coachable, and they’re not ready to be done,” he said.
Ryle held Newport’s leading scorer, junior Amontae Lowe (20.5 ppg), without a bucket until late in the third quarter. He had 11 in the game.
The Raiders showed him a lot of different looks, mixing up which defender they sent to him, and sometimes trapping him at midcourt.
“They’re tough and physical,” Newport head coach Rod Snapp said. “That’s what he preaches. I know that’s what he talks about. They bumped him off cuts, they bumped him off drives, and when he got down to the paint, they just walled up, and made him shoot over them. And they’re pretty strong, and they got two or three guys with so much experience.”
Ryle led 22-19 at the half. Anthony Coppola led the way with 11 points. Blake Broz had 5 and Holden Smith. Ryle limited Newport to 33% shooting, 9-of-27 from the floor. Logan Petty had 4 points and six rebounds for the Wildcats, and Irvan Nichols scored 6 points in the half.
After Newport cut the lead to five early in the fourth quarter, 39-34, Ryle got two clutch baskets from A.J. Davis, two from Holden Smith, and one from Grace Nsuti to push the lead to nine, 50-41.
Ryle outrebounded Newport by 10 in the second half after being outrebounded by nine in the first. Grace Nsuti had 10 rebounds in the half and 13 for the game.
Coppola had 16 points. Davis and Smith scored 12 each. Davis added seven rebounds. Irvan Nichols led Newport with 12 and Lowe had 11.
Coppola did most of his damage early, scoring 7 points in the first.
“We were a little stagnant, not playing for a whole week, and a lot of the team’s first time in region,” Coppola said. “I think my experience, I felt comfortable there, and I was able to keep us in the game at the start with our slow start.”
Newport had a young team this year and Snapp was pleased with their progress.
“We have two seniors and everybody else’s back,” he said. “The kids were extremely coachable, fantastic group. They went hard in practice every day. They were easy to coach. Didn’t have a lot of hiccups, a lot of situations. It was definitely a fun year. for sure.”
Defense stands out in Conner vs. Highlands quarterfinal game
On an afternoon when two of Northern Kentucky’s best offensive teams were in a scorefest, and one of the region’s best scorers was on a heater, defense won the game.
Conner edged Highlands 79-76 in the first quarterfinal of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Ninth Region Tournament March 7 at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena.
Conner (15-12) advanced to play Covington Catholic in the March 8 semifinals. Highlands finishes 25-6.
It is Conner’s first win in the tournament since 2021.
“It’s awesome,” senior Finn Louden said. “NKU’s obviously a great arena. It’s a good one to win in the tournament. Just move on and keep playing.”
Said Conner head coach Nathan Browning: “You coach a group of guys that work so hard all year long, you just don’t want it to end. You just want it to keep going. We got a special group of seniors that just work their butt off for us and you know, I just wasn’t ready to be done with them yet. I want to keep coaching those guys.”
Louden, a senior averaging 25 points per game, had 36 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 6-of-8 from 3-point range. He also dished out six assists. He had 14 points in the third quarter to help the Cougars rally from a 10-point deficit.
“What a special guy, man,” Browning said. “Getting to coach him and seeing what he does on the floor. A lot of time, we’ll be calling a play. He either doesn’t hear us or he goes on his own and makes a play, you got to live with that sometimes because he makes more plays than he doesn’t.”
Louden only scored one bucket after Conner took the lead early in the fourth quarter. Louden started a 10-0 run with a 3-pointer. Senior Brady Bushman scored a pair of buckets, and sophomore Juan Rondon hit a 3-pointer, and Conner led 67-61.
Rondon had 9 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Tyler Warner had 11 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
With Conner leading 75-74, Bushman, one of the Conner baseball team’s best players, inbounded under his basket and threw a long baseball pass to the frontcourt. He hit Rondon in stride, and the soph scored a layup to push the lead back to three.
Bushman came up big again in the final seconds and Conner leading 77-76.
Highlands inbounded to senior Finn Bouldin under the basket. He was wide open, but Bushman turned around, made a quick recovery and blocked the layup. Bushman plucked the ball out of the air, got fouled, and made both free throws. Highlands missed two 3-pointers in the final seconds.
“I think there was a little bit of a miscommunication,” Bushman said. “I said switch, he didn’t switch. Look back, ball’s coming over. I’ve been reading him all game. He was always pump-faking, so I never went up on the first one. It was exciting.”
In a game that had nine players reach double figures, it was defensive plays like that which won it.
“We just talked about making sure we stuck together,” Browning said. “Start playing a little harder when things get difficult. And I thought our guys did a really good job of that tonight. We didn’t get rattled or nervous and start playing worse, I thought we came together.”
Eighth-grader Amil Wimzie led Highlands with 19 points. Tayden Lorenzen had 18 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.
Covington Catholic rolls over Dixie Heights
CovCath outscored Dixie Heights 44-14 in the second and third quarters and rolled to a 71-41 win in the second quarterfinal. The Colonels (29-2) advance to face Conner in the first semifinal 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 8. Dixie finishes 18-13.
CovCath forced 21 turnovers for the game and scored 29 points off those turnovers. Max Rubemeyer led Dixie with 13 points and six rebounds.
“Our defense is based on just relentless pressure,” CovCath head coach Jake Thelen said. “So that’s what we practice every day in practice. If we just stay solid and keep doing what we’re doing, teams at some point will start to struggle with some of the pressure.”
CovCath struggled from the field, shooting 5-for-28 from 3-point range but shot 25-of-38 from inside the arc (65.7%). Dixie held Braeden Myrick to 9 points and Athens McGillis to 15 by face-guarding both players. Senior Cash Harney made up for that with 20 points and seven assists.
“Coach always tells us defense makes our offense,” Harney said. “When we play as a team, when we’re all hitting shots, we’re going to be hard to stop.”
Thelen said preparing to defend Louden will be a challenge.
“We just got to do what we do,” Thelen said. “You really prepare for them because he’s a really elite scorer. He does a really nice job for them, and their coach does a nice job of putting him in good positions to score. So there’ll be a lot of film to watch tonight, a lot of game prep to make sure our guys feel organized and prepared to go play this game tomorrow.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Conner, CovCath, Lloyd and Ryle advance to Ninth Region semifinals
Reporting by James Weber, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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