The 10th Regional had come to town, to Holmes, a bit controversially outside the region’s geography some would say, and yet there was no controversy about how Wednesday’s opening round started.
It did so with a tribute – and an appropriate moment of silence – for Mel Webster. An advocate for and coach of girls’ sports, a historian of the Ninth Region basketball and a longtime athletic director at Bishop Brossart High School, Mel passed away earlier in the day. And before the Brossart-Mason County game, the crowd at his alma mater, Holmes, would respectfully honor Mel’s passing.
And then three teams who had to travel farther than they’re used to – Mason County, the state’s No. 1 team George Rogers Clark and Robertson County — joined Brossart on the opening night for the 10th Region quarterfinals that went exactly as expected.
MASON COUNTY 69, BISHOP BROSSART 50
Instead of tipping off at the 5,400-seat “Fieldhouse” at Mason County or the 4,500-seat Letcher Norton Gym at George Rogers Clark in Winchester or the 4,200-seat MCHS Arena at Montgomery County in Mt. Sterling, they were at 25th and Madison. In the 3,000-seat David Evans Gym in the shadow of “The Castle,” where so many Ninth Region titles were decided.
But not technically in the 10th Region. “A lot of people made a big to-do about nothing,” Brossart Coach Scott Code said of the decision of Northern Kentucky’s 37th District schools to bring the regional here. “I’m OK with a 15-minute drive,” Code said of the trip from Alexandria. At least once every fourth year, anyway.
But Code, who abstained from voting for this location while going along with his fellow Northern Kentucky teams Campbell County and Scott, could do was explain the rationale. And the drive.
When the tournament is at 40th District host Montgomery County, here’s how it goes, Code said: “You start in the 10th Region (in Alexandria), head across to I-75 (through the Ninth Region in Kenton County) then down through the Eighth Region (in Grant County) then on to the 11th Region (in Fayette County) and then back to the 10th (in Clark and Montgomery Counties). We have to go through five different regions to get where we’re going,” Code said, wishing the KHSAA would not have done so much gerrymandering in the re-districting.
So every fourth year, maybe it should be on the downstate guys to do some traveling, he said. “Although as a small private school, I can understand having it at those places for the additional revenue,” Code said. “But we gave it a try.”
And it didn’t seem to discourage the large group of Mason County fans, who account for four of the five largest Sweet 16 crowds in history at Rupp Arena. “They got here before ours did,” Code said, which was something of a preview for how this game would go. Brossart would try to take its time, go inside to 6-foot-6 football tight end David Govan, their do-everything guy, and get the mismatch.
“But they hit some early shots,” Code said of Mason senior Nate Mitchell, who had 21 points, and sophomore Braylon Hamilton, who had 19 with three three-pointers that speeded up the game with a 24-15 first-quarter Mason lead. Brossart, finishing 12-19, placed Govan on the All-Region Team as a result of his 14-point performance.
“It’s often unfair how much we ask of David sometimes,” Code said. “We ask him to be our best ball handler, our best playmaker, our best big, best defender,” Code said.
“We’ve asked David so much through the course of the year, but we needed to . . . David embraced it, he welcomed it.” And when he was taken out in the final minute, the Brossart crowd gave Govan a well-deserved sendoff.
But the Mason crowd – and the pep band and a cheerleading squad in tune with the band as all three downstate teams and fan bases were with their musicians along for the trip – made the Holmes venue seem more like one of the traditional downstate hosts.
Northern Kentucky, unfortunately, has seemed to let the pep band concept slip away with the onset of Covid issues the last couple of years. It was great fun to see it – and hear it — back as the 10th Region came to town.
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 103, ROBERTSON 50
Not too hard to handicap the second game Wednesday. At 30-1, GRC as they like to be called, had not lost to a Kentucky team this season and had by far the largest average margin of victory, 31.6 points, in the state. No. 2 Covington Catholic, which would be a fun matchup if these two face each other in the Sweet 16, is beating teams by an average 22.1.
Then there’s Robertson County. Of Kentucky’s 120 counties, it’s the smallest. Fewer than 2,200 people – 2,193 to be exact — reside in this place where the county seat of Mt. Olivet (population 299) sits along US 62 between Maysville and Cynthiana, Falmouth and Flemingsburg.
“We’re the smallest county school in the state,” says Robertson County Coach Aaron Massey, whose Black Devils dressed out just eight players with three looking like they had no expectation of ever playing. “We have just 117 students. And only three teams (out of 33) we played this year were smaller than we were.”
The good news for Robertson County is that one of those 117 is 6-foot-7 Justin Becker – “a diamond in the rough,” Thomas More Coach Justin Ray says of the player the Saints signed to a scholarship early in the fall who is the No. 2 scorer in the state at 32.5 points a game.
As for the trip from Mt. Olivet to Covington, “it took just a little over an hour,” Massey said. “I’m a traditionalist so I’d rather see this at “the Fieldhouse” but Holmes has a nice facility. And we have a lot of people down our way who drive up here every day to work at Procter & Gamble or the Airport.” Next year they can add TMU to the destination list.
The bad news for Robertson County was that GRC – with its 1,570 students (think Dixie Heights) — threw as many as three or four players at him, taking turns every few minutes and doubling him once he crossed midcourt. There just wasn’t a lot of help or anywhere for him to dump the ball off and yet Becker managed 23 points despite how he was physically defended. Because he’s not an inside player but a big perimeter shooter with a good handle.
“That’s what we’ve seen all year,” Massey said of how teams have defended Becker. “He’s physically been beaten up . . . he’s a great kid, humble, a pleasure to coach.”
But never quite able to keep up with the state’s leading scorer, Jacob Meyer of Holy Cross, who Becker played against in the Bellevue tournament. “He’s got the most athleticism I’ve ever seen in this state,” Becker said of Meyer, averaging 38.1 points a game. “The impressive thing about him is he’s only a junior.”
Not that almost anything mattered in the mismatch where it was obvious GRC was going to be able to pretty much name the score as the Cardinals from Winchester pressed and converted as they ran the numbers up.
One thing that tells you how this one went: Robertson County cleared its three-man bench before GRC did despite a 100-50 lead.
“They’re the best team we’ve played all year,” Becker said. “I think they’ll win the state – them or Covington Catholic.”
GRC has four players averaging in double figures but the two most impressive are 6-8 junior Trent Edwards, averaging 13.3 points, who runs and jumps well and is a big-time dunker, doing so twice to beat the buzzer on the break. And 6-5 junior shooting guard Jerone Morton, who often leads the break, averaging 18.9 points.
GRC now plays Mason County Monday in the first game at Holmes at 6 p.m.
