Dan Weber writes a sports column for LINK nky. Contact him at dweber3440@aol.com.
No surprise that Covington Catholic, of all the No. 1 teams in the state’s 16 regions, has had the fewest regional opponents willing to play.
Going into Tuesday night’s matchup at Conner, CovCath had beaten its five Ninth Region foes by an average 38.6 points. The three Greater Cincinnati League teams — LaSalle, St. Xavier and McNicholas — didn’t do much better, falling by an average 35 points.
The average top team in each region had played nearly 10 regional opponents, double CovCath’s total. So what was the deal just 5:20 into the game? Could that scoreboard be correct?
CONNER 20, COVCATH 13
By the five-minute mark, almost every one of CovCath’s local games has been effectively over already. Like “wave the white flag” over.
But the Cougars weren’t over. Nor were they missing, especially from three-point range where they drilled their first three. They weren’t turning it over, either. Weren’t giving in to the CovCath defensive pressure, although the Colonel coaches thought maybe it was their defense that was giving in.
“Guys, they’re scoring at will,” a frustrated CovCath coach Scott Ruthsatz called out.
“Have some pride,” assistant Joe Fredrick yelled at the end of the first quarter with CovCath having given up 22 points, down by four. A number of opponents have been lucky to score that many by halftime.
With guard Landen Hamilton (10 points) back from a sprained ankle to add firepower to fellow juniors Ayden Lohr (15) and Daniel Campbell (8), the Cougs held on to the lead for a minute into the second period before the Colonels caught them, but still kept within reach at halftime, down just 40-35.
But that was it. CovCath opened three of four quarters by going down low to 6-foot-8 senior Mitchell Rylee, who finished the night with a perfect nine-for-nine from the field and two for two from the line for a perfect 20-point night against a Conner team whose tallest player is 6-3 Landen Cook.
“We know we can score,” Ruthsatz said, with 6-6 junior Chandler Starks joining Rylee down low as much as CovCath could get both of them down there. He was seven for nine from the field with 15 rebounds and 15 points.
“For us, it all comes down to defense,” Ruthsatz said. Although with all-state point guard Evan Ipsaro scoring on six of his seven shots for his 15 points, leaving him 10 shy of CovCath’s 1,000-Point Club, when you do the math that’s 22-of-25 shooting for the Colonels’ big three. Which works out to 88 percent. Which is ridiculous.
Factor in all the Colonels and they still shot 65.3 percent for the game on 32 of 49. One explanation here: CovCath had an amazingly efficient 23 assists on 32 field goals. If they got the ball to you, you were probably in position to score.
Add in a pair of three-pointers each for starters Kascyl McGillis and Brady Hussey and that was just too much offense for the smaller Cougars to handle in a 76-56 loss that matched the closest local game for CovCath this season, tying the 20-point margin in a 79-59 season-opening win over Dixie Heights.
Of the early lead, Conner Coach Matt Otte said he looked up at the scoreboard and thought “that’s nice,” but “it’d have been nicer if that was the score at the end.”
But they “worked hard and moved well,” Otte said of his Cougars until they ran out of gas against CovCath’s increased physicality as the Colonels abandoned their trapping out of a zone defense and just went straight man-to-man.
“They’re the most physical team we play,” Otte said of a CovCath program where he was an assistant.
That’s the point, Ruthsatz said, that man-to-man is “going to be our go-to defense.”
Just the way the ball has to go to Rylee down as low as he can go on the blocks.
“I don’t think he’s ever been that efficient,” Ruthsatz said of his Miami-of-Ohio-bound center. Rylee said he hadn’t. He had gone seven for seven against LaSalle with all seven dunks earlier.
On this night, when the Colonels trailed early, he told his teammates to “get me the ball, they can’t guard me.”
And for a team that just went back up to No. 3 in this week’s Kentucky AP Basketball Poll, Rylee said that early 20-13 deficit was a jolt. “We’re not used to that.”
His message to his teammates: “This is not what a Top Five team in the state should play like,” he said. And by the time this was over, it hadn’t.
CONNOR: Landen Hamilton 10; Ayden Lohr 15; Danieel Campbell 8; Alex Castrucci 4; Landen Cook 6; Dalton Kramer 8; Finn Louden 3; Grant Reece 2; TOTALS: 20-50 (8-20 3PT); 8-10 FT; 23 REB; 7 PF; 9 A; 10 TO; 0 BLK; 5 STL; 56 PTS.
COVCATH: Evan Ipsaro 15; Kascyl McGillis 10; Mitchell Rylee 20; Brady Hussey 8; Chandler Starks 15; Wynn Trantor 3; Ayden Link 3; Aiden Jones 2; TOTALS: 32-49 (8-22 3PT); 4-5 FT; 25 REB; 8 PF; 23 A; 8 TO; 2 BLK; 8 STL; 76 PTS.
