The teams that built leads in the first quarter ended up winning both games.
But no lead in these games felt safe in the rugged 33rd District semifinals at Ryle on Wednesday. The Cooper Jaguars (22-5) took care of the host Raiders (13-20) in the first game and the Conner Cougars (19-9) bested the Boone County Rebels (14-16) in the second one.
The championship game takes place Friday back at Ryle. The Cougars have won the last two district tournament crowns and have made it to the 9th Region Tournament four consecutive years. Cooper is returning to the region tournament after missing out last year.
Cooper 49, Ryle 33:
The Jaguars scored the game’s first six points and did what has been a staple for years under Head Coach Tim Sullivan.
That’s work the ball around offensively, take the good shot and play solid defense recording 27 defensive stops to 22 for Ryle. The Jaguars had 1.07 points per possession to .7 for the Raiders.
“In 33rd District basketball, if you’ve been around long enough, you know that seeds go out the window, records go out the window,” Sullivan said. “You have to get off to a fast start. You have to understand that it’s a long game. There are going to be runs on both ends. We knew that Ryle wasn’t going anywhere. But I’m really proud of the way that our kids just continued to stay with what we were trying to do and stayed with the game plan.”
It also helped the Jaguars won the rebounding battle, 39-18 including 15-2 on the offensive glass outscoring the hosts, 14-0 in second-chance points. Junior Gavin Lutz led the way recording 12 rebounds.
“It’s a team things. (Lutz) didn’t score a lot. But he affected the game in other ways,” Sullivan said. “That’s the fun part about basketball.”
The Jaguars may have seen just one player score in double digits in Blake Berry with 13 points. But a number of players contributed. Berry also had nine rebounds and drew four fouls. Freshman guard Yamil Rondon scored nine points and senior guard Montana Phillips scored eight to go with two steals.
The leading scorer for Cooper is junior 6-foot-9-inch Caleb Brooks. He scored just six points. But he made things tough in the middle for Ryle.
Cooper made 17 of 51 shots for 33 percent including 2 of 9 from three-point range for 22 percent and 13 of 19 free throws for 68 percent. The Jaguars also had nine fouls, one assist, six turnovers and two steals.
Senior guards Donovan Robinson and Connor Bishop came into the game averaging 16.8 and 10.4 points per game. Berry took on the challenge of guarding Robinson and held him scoreless. Bishop had just seven points.
“I’ve said it before. (Robinson) is one of the most talented scorers in the region,” Berry said. “The thing about him is he can score at all three levels and he’s super shifty. There is no way to contain him. You just have to kind of hope he misses shots and make him uncomfortable. Our guys being the gaps really helps a lot taking pressure off me.”
Senior guard/forward Brayden Smith tried to keep Ryle close scoring 14 points. He drew five fouls making 6 of 8 free throws for 75 percent.
The Raiders made 11 of 45 shots for 24 percent including 5 of 19 from three-point range for 26 percent. Smith had the only free throws for the Raiders. Ryle also had 17 fouls, three assists, three turnovers and two steals.
“One of our goals was to get off to a fast start and we obviously did not,” said Keaton Belcher, Ryle head coach. “It’s hard to beat Cooper when you trail for 32 minutes. You have to get the lead on them. Coach Sullivan is one of the best coaches in Kentucky. He has been for 10 years, maybe more. So we knew we had our hands full.”
Berry scored after two Cooper offensive rebounds just 23 seconds into the game. Brooks and Phillips baskets gave the Jaguars that 6-0 cushion. Smith made two free throws to pull Ryle within one at 8-7 before Phillips made two free throws to put Cooper up 10-7 after the first quarter.
“Our team knew it could have been our last game. We just had to come out and fight,” Phillips said. “I think everyone was prepared. Everyone knew what they had to do. Everyone knew his job and we just executed them.”
Cooper extended the lead to 23-16 at halftime. The Jaguars led 23-12 after senior guard Ethan Staten made a three. But Smith scored twice to pull Ryle within seven.
Berry made a triple and two free throws to lead Cooper on a 5-0 run in the third quarter to extend the lead to 28-19. The Jaguars led by 10 twice including 35-25 entering the fourth quarter after Berry made two free throws. Ryle did cut the lead to 31-25 late in the third following a Smith three-pointer.
Bishop scored 28 seconds into the fourth quarter to cut the Cooper lead to 35-27. But the Jaguars finished things off with a 12-1 run to go up 47-28 with 1:12 left in the game. Rondon scored five times during the run and had a nice assist to Staten for the score near the basket. That let Cooper spread the ball out and take time off the clock.
“You have to understand time clock and understand the game,” Sullivan said. “Our kids for a second there were going down and shooting quick shots, which led to now our defense is in transition and we’re struggling to match up on guys. It was all about spacing the floor a bit, being strong with the ball and driving because good things happen when you drive the ball. You get good paint touches. Guys are open or you get fouled.”
Cooper is seeking its first district tournament title since winning three in a row between 2017 and 2019. The 2017 team won the 9th Region and finished state runner-up. Ryle won its last district tournament title in 2014.
Ryle graduates five seniors off the team. They are Bishop, Smith, Robinson, Nathan Yowan and Dominick Amorello.
“They’re notoriously known for playing extremely hard,” Belcher said. “We’re not the biggest team in the world. They have to fight, claw and scrap. I’m really proud of them. For my three years here at Ryle, they’ve shown up every day. In today’s society, that doesn’t happen very often with a lot of people. They’ve got a bright future whether in athletics or not in athletics. I’m really proud of the bright young men that they are.”
Conner 73, Boone County 62:
Boone County had three early leads. But once Conner used a 6-0 lead to go up 12-6, the Cougars never trailed.
“It’s always huge to get that first district win,” said Matt Otte, Conner head coach. “Out here in this district, they’re never easy no matter what the score says. We knew it was going to be the case again with Boone. This is our third year in a row playing them in the first round. None of them have been easy. We knew going in that they were going to give us everything they had. I thought we played pretty well in the first half. I didn’t like us trading baskets in the second half. But that’s what we did and we found a way to kind of keep that cushion at the end. That’s really all that matters at this time.”
Junior guard Landen Hamilton led the way for Conner scoring 28 points making four three-pointers and 6-of-7 free throws. He saw the season come to an end for his younger sister Anna, a sophomore guard for the Lady Cougars, on the same floor Tuesday and did not want to see the three Conner seniors play their final games.
“We sat good ball screens,” Hamilton said. “(The Rebels) were playing us tight. We curled off and read what they did.”
Conner had three players that average in double figures. Junior guards Ayden Lohr scored 15 points and Daniel Campbell added 12. Senior guard Alex Castrucci added nine points.
“A lot of credit goes to (the Rebels). They always find a way to stick around,” Castrucci said. “Being in a battle like that really puts us in a good situation going into the region. Fifty, fifty balls have to go 100 percent our way. That’s what we like to do in practice. Every time there’s a loose ball, we dive on the floor, get a little physical for it. That’s what Conner ball is all about. Outhustling people is what we like to pride ourselves on.”
A big difference came at the free-throw line. Conner made 15 of 18 for 83 percent on 14 Rebel fouls compared to 6 of 9 for 67 percent on nine Cougar fouls for Boone County.
The Cougars also won the rebounding battle 28-21. Campbell led Conner with seven.
Boone County sophomore forward Jashaun Pouncey gave a valiant effort keeping the Rebels within striking distance. Pouncy made 13 of 17 shots on his way to 28 points to go with six rebounds and four fouls drawn.
“He couldn’t be stopped (Wednesday),” said Nathan Browning, Boone County head coach. “You won’t find a better kid. You won’t find a better player than Shaun as far as going out there, giving everything he’s got and being a great young man off the court. He’s a polite kid. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy coaching him.
Pouncy did pick up his second foul in the middle of the second quarter and had to sit the rest of the first half. But that’s where sophomore guard Thomas Williams scored five of his nine points. Sophomore guard Mason Hall added 11 for the Rebels.
But the biggest key defensively for Conner is holding Boone County’s second-leading scorer in senior point guard Cole Shumate to just two points. Shumate averaged 12.3 points per game entering the game.
“That was big. We talked about this week the second time we played them,” Otte said. “We did a good job like we did (Wednesday) defending the three-point line and not making things easy for him. Give Landen, Alex and everybody else that helped on him credit because they took what we told them to do and they executed it. It worked in our favor.”
Conner outscored Boone County, 1.49-1.24 in points per possession and 1.19 to 1.14 in points per shot. The Cougars made 26 of 52 shots for 50 percent and 6 of 11 three-point tries for 55 percent to go with two assists and seven turnovers.
“They hit shots early,” Browning said. “Our goal was to try to stop a couple guys that shoot the ball well for them. They really hurt us. We got down by 10 in the first quarter and then they ended up winning the game by 10. They have some kids that can play that are really quick. They make things difficult on you. I thought as the game went on, we got better at trying to slow them down and make things difficult on them. But early on, we struggled and I feel that’s one of the reasons that we couldn’t come out on top.”
The Rebels made 26 of 50 shots for 52 percent including 4 of 17 from three-point range for 24 percent. They outscored the Cougars, 16-8 in points off turnovers.
Conner led 22-12 after one quarter. The Cougars extended it to 34-20 with 1:40 left in the half after a Lohr three. They lead 36-23 at halftime after a score from senior forward Landen Cook.
The Cougars extended the lead to 54-33 at one point following a Campbell score. But the Rebels went on an 8-0 run on two Hall three-pointers to trim the margin to 54-41. But junior Dalton Kramer made a three-point play to give the Cougars a 59-43 lead entering the fourth quarter.
“(It’s about) taking great shots, making sure you’re moving the ball,” Otte said. “We did a few times where we moved the ball five, six passes and then the shot went up. That was like, ‘Eh.’ It was a decent shot. But at that point, you’re trying to get great shots and not just thinking, ‘Oh, well. I know I have to play defense now.’ At some points, you get that lead and then you think, ‘I don’t want to foul people.’ So you kind of let them go to the basket, which I thought we did a little bit and then not sprinting back and (letting them) hit some three because they didn’t quit. We got lucky enough to hang on.”
Boone County did manage to trim the lead to single digits once in the quarter after a Williams score with 40 seconds left. But Campbell made two free throws and Castrucci scored a transition bucket before Williams made a triple for Boone County to make the final score.
Boone County graduates four players from the team. They are Shumate, guards Jake Barth, Chris McGuire and forward Jiyanni Mhlanga. These 14 wins are the most the Rebels have had since going 16-12 during the 2017-2018 season.
“We have a lot of great kids,” Browning said. “They just work their tails off for me every day. They show up. They give me everything they have every day. We had a lot of young kids this year. A couple of them even stepped up in this game and played well for us. I couldn’t be more prouder of them for that. I appreciate my guys. I love my guys.”
The Rebels last made the 9th Region Tournament in 2015. They won their last district tournament championship in 2009.
33rd Boys District Basketball Tournament Schedule at Ryle:
First Round on Monday, Feb. 21:
Ryle 83, Heritage Academy 47
Semifinals on Wednesday, Feb 23:
Cooper 49, Ryle 33
Conner 73, Boone County 62
Title Game on Friday, Feb. 25:
Cooper (22-5) vs. Conner (19-9), 7 p.m.