Arguably the most competitive district in the state had a No. 4 seed on their home floor and playing really well down the stretch while the No. 2 vs No. 3 seed game was a toss-up that could have went either way.
The 33rd District boys basketball tournament was sure to provide some thrills on Wednesday night, No. 1 seed Cooper stifling the host Conner while Ryle rallied late to beat Boone County. The Jaguars and Raiders will meet Friday night at 7 p.m. at Conner for the district championship.
Here’s how it went down:
Ryle 49, Boone County 47
Even though he’s not on the football field in pads, his basketball teammates still call him “QB1”.
Ryle’s Logan Verax accomplishments on the football field as a Raider are untouched, the program’s all-time leading passer. Wednesday night he added another defining moment for Raider athletics, hitting the game-winning 3-pointer with less than a minute to play in Ryle’s 49-47 victory over Boone County in the 33rd District tournament semifinals at Boone County.
Verax helped ignite a Raiders 10-1 run in the last two minutes of the game with a 3-pointer and finished it with a triple from the corner.
“Everybody lives for that moment,” Verax said. “When you’re a kid you dream about hitting the game winning shot and it puts you up in a big district game like this. So it’s just awesome to actually do it.”
Boone County will look back and wonder. Leading 46-39 with less than two minutes to play, Ryle finished the game on a 10-1 run as Thomas Williams mid-range jumper rolled around the rim and out in the closing seconds to add to the misery.
In a battle between the No. 2 seed Ryle and No. 3 seed Boone County, it was a game of runs. Ryle was the aggressor early on, building a 17-9 end of first quarter lead and stretching it to as much as 12 in the second quarter.
Boone took about 14 minutes to finally get some momentum on their side, closing the half on a 7-1 run to get within 28-22 by the break.
The Rebels took their first lead of the night late in the third on an Elijah Bodkin layup, Anthony Coppola answering on the other end before the third quarter horn to make it 37-36 Raiders headed to the fourth.
Ryle didn’t score until the 2:31 mark of the fourth, Landon Lorms putback making it 44-39 Rebels. Maddox Jones added a layup for Boone to make it 46-39 with a little more than two minutes to play, the last made field goal of the night for the Rebels.
Verax hit a 3-pointer with 1:53 left, after a Rebels turnover, Evan Smith hit two free throws to make it 46-44. A Jonathan DeGroff layup tied the game up with a minute to play, Williams hitting 1-of-2 free throws on the other end to make it 47-46 with less than a minute to go.
Coppola’s drive on the ensuing possession was halted, finding Verax in the corner and the senior calmly swishing the corner trey ball.
“We always tell our kids to be tough and to be elite. The definition for us in being elite is to simply know that no matter what situation you’re in basketball or life, you are elite enough to overcome it,” Raiders coach Nick Dorning said. “Our kids believed in the things we talk about all the time and they went out and executed.”
The Rebels had four chances to either tie or take the lead from there. First Hunter Moore’s 3-point attempt clanked off the rim and after the Raiders secured the rebound, Elijah Bodkin got a steal, but couldn’t convert a contested shot in the lane, Jones grabbed the offensive rebound, but Lorms blocked his shot out-of-bounds with 14 seconds to play.
After a deflection out-of-bounds, Williams caught the inbound pass near halfcourt, dribbled to about 10-feet of the rim, his shot doing the “toilet bowl” and out.
“He shoots that 10 times it goes in nine and unfortunately this is one of the 10 that didn’t go in,” Rebels coach Nathan Browning said.
Ryle secured the rebound and with Boone having two more fouls to give and only 2.8 seconds remaining, the Raiders were able to run out the clock from there.
It gets Ryle back to the 9th Region tournament for the first time since 2021 as their best season in 13 years continues.
“From the beginning of the season we told our kids our vision is to be on a yellow school bus going down 75 on our way to Northern,” Dorning said. “They’ve been able to accomplish that goal and that vision and I’m proud of them.”
Verax led the Raiders with 17 points, DeGroff and Lorms scoring nine points each.
Boone County posted their best season since 2014-15 with 18 wins. It was a senior-laden roster with every player to enter the game on Wednesday set to graduate in the spring.
“I wanted it for them,” Browning said. “Their goal for three years was to play at Northern. We tried to do everything we could and we just didn’t get there.”
The Rebels were led by Mason Hall’s 14 points as he knocked down four 3-pointers. Williams added 11, Jones and Bodkin with eight.
RAIDERS 49, REBELS 47
BOONE COUNTY — 9-13-14-11 — 47
RYLE — 17-11-9-12 — 49
Scoring
Boone (47) — Hall 14, Williams 11, Jones 8, Bodkin 8, Moore 4, Clos 2
Ryle (49) — Verax 17, DeGroff 9, Lorms 9, Coppola 5, Smith 6, Reynolds 3
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Boone 4, Ryle 5
Free Throws: Boone 4/5, Ryle 6/8
Records: Boone County 18-10, Ryle 19-10
Cooper 53, Conner 39
The Jaguars owned the battle of the boards and held Conner to two points in the third quarter as they steadily pulled away from the host Cougars in the first semifinal of the night.
Cooper won the rebounding battle 35-12 and held Conner to 37% from the field as they looked the part as one of the 9th Region contenders. Wednesday night’s contest left some optimism for Conner, the first meeting between the two was a one-point game back on Dec. 15.
“There’s a reason I got a zit on my nose at 45-years-old. There’s a reason I got black rings under my eyes,” Jaguars coach Tim Sullivan said. “It is nerve-wracking, especially when you’re a 1-seed and playing a four-seed on their floor. Conner was probably the best No. 4 seed in the state.”
But that was also without Jaguars’ Shaun Pouncy and Andy Johnson, the two missing the contest due to injury. Pouncy finished Wednesday’s contest with 12 points and seven rebounds, six of them on the offensive end to keep possessions alive.
“Wanted to win in the trenches. We knew we were going to miss shots against their 2-3 zone, but felt like we had a lot of guys going to the glass,” Jaguars coach Tim Sullivan said. “For us to outrebound them like we did I thought that was big.”
Johnson added nine points, including a buzzer-beating fadeaway 3-pointer at the end of the first to give Cooper a 18-12 lead.
Conner got within two after a Finn Louden floater to make it 20-18, but the Jaguars entered lockdown mode from there, allowing four points over the next 12-plus minutes, taking a commanding 35-22 lead into the fourth.
NKAC Division I defensive Player of the Year Jaidan Combs helped key the separation, scoring seven straight points for the Cougars from the end of the third and into the fourth as the Jaguars led 37-24. Combs added five rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal to his nine-point tally.
“Defense helps with my confidence. My mom has taught me my whole life defense wins games,” Combs said. “As long as we’re guarding and they’re not hitting shots we’re going to win games.”
Conner would get no closer than 12 from there. This was a Cougars team with not much expectation coming into the season due to the large roster turnover from graduation last year, but they still put out a highly competitive product and finished 11-17. Seven of those losses came by five points or less. Their three regular season district losses were by a total of six points.
“We were nine points away from being a No. 1 seed in the district,” Cougars coach Matthew Otte said. “We told them going into the season this was going to be the hardest year of basketball because it was all new for everybody. And to their credit it shows their character they not once got down on themselves and they showed up every day to work and got better. And I think we saw that in the last month of the season.”
The Cougars were led by Louden’s 15 points, no one else scoring more than five. They’ll graduate four seniors, but return four starters.
“We started a freshman and two sophomores. Play some juniors and sophomore off the bench. Definitely some talent there and we just have to keep moving in the right direction,” Otte said.
Yamil Rondon led the Jaguars with 13 points, Isaiah Johnson added six points with seven rebounds.
Cooper and Ryle met once during the regular season, a 57-52 Ryle victory back on Jan. 12.
JAGUARS 53, COUGARS 39
CONNER — 12-8-2-17 — 39
COOPER — 18-10-7-18 — 53
Scoring
Conner (39) — Louden 15, T. Warner 5, L. Warner 5, Huff 5, Abousaleh 3, Romero 2, Fay 2, Haynes 2
Cooper (53) — Rondon 13, Pouncy 12, A. Johnson 9, Combs 9, I. Johnson 6, Brown 2, Rodriguez 2
Game Stats
Field Goals: Conner 15/39, Cooper 22/49
3-Pointers: Conner 3/12, Cooper 2/16
Free Throws: Conner 6/15, Cooper 7/11
Rebounds: Conner 12, Cooper 35
Assists: Conner 4, Cooper 9
Turnovers: Conner 7, Cooper 12
Steals: Conner 5, Cooper 5
Blocks: Conner 2, Cooper 3
Fouls: Conner 11, Cooper 14
Records: Conner 11-17, Cooper 21-8
