LEXINGTON – The ice tubs were full. The between-games showering and changing spot at Lexington Sayre High School reserved. The pre/post-game sandwiches (not enough time for a full meal in the 3 1/2 hours between games) were ordered.
Evan Ipsaro’s ankle rehab starting late Friday could not have gone better: ice, elevation, treatment, ice elevation, treatment, repeat four more times, then elevate overnight, then more ice, elevation, treatment, a couple of shots from the team doc with additional expertise and hands-on input from the team trainer and strength and conditioning director.
And there was Evan, warming up with a bit of a hitch in his giddyup but not nearly enough to keep him out of Saturday’s semifinal Sweet 16 matchup with Warren Central. Evan knew how much his Covington Catholic teammates needed him.
It could not have all been going more according to plan, to a grand plan that had challenged the Colonels, 30-4 coming into this game, to be ready when the moment came, ready to win a third state title in Coach Scott Ruthsatz’ 11 years in Park Hills.
And if the only question had been how quickly and how well could the dynamic, difference-making Ipsaro come back from his ankle injury late in Friday’s Lyon County squeaker, it had clearly been answered.
Scoring 11 of CovCath’s 14 first-period points with flying drives, pull-up jumpers, follow-up rebound scores while hitting the floor time and again in one scrum after another, the 5-foot-11 point guard, in as gutty and inspiring a performance as Rupp Arena has seen in years. He would score 22 of CovCath’s 34 points as the Colonels worked themselves up to a nine-point lead at intermission.
Sure, it could have been larger had the Colonel “bigs” gotten into the game more against a quick, smart 27-3 Warren Central team with no one bigger than 6-4. But surely that would come in the second half. This CovCath team was built for moments like this, as the plan prepared them, right?
Wrong. Cancel the ice. Hold the sandwiches. No worries about limiting the number of post-game press conference questions. Instead of 3 ½ hours until their next game, the Colonels will have 8 ½ months now.
Instead of stepping up and moving on to Saturday night’s dream championship matchup against top-ranked George Rogers Clark, CovCath watched the Dragons dancing their way to their own ice tubs after winning the second half, 36-25 on the way to a 61-58 win.
That wasn’t all the Dragons won. Despite Ipsaro’s spectacular 32-minute, 30-point game, the Bowling Green team out-shot the Colonels 50.0 percent (21 of 42) to 42.2 percent (19 of 45), outshot them from three-point range (seven of 13 for 53.8 percent to six of 18 for 33.3 percent) and stood them off even with 21 rebounds apiece.
By himself, 6-4 junior Chappelle Whitney outscored CovCath’s two “bigs,” 6-8 Rylee Mitchell and 6-6 Chandler Starks, 21 to 10. In a three-point game, that’s all it took.
“Just be physical,” Warren Central Coach George Unseld challenged his guys. “Push ‘em off the blocks and make ‘em guard you. Make ‘em block the shot, . . . this is basketball.”
Playing free and fearless, Warren Central did just that. “They were just real physical with us,” Ruthsatz said, “and we made some bad decisions with the ball.”
Like kicking it back outside when they could have gone back up with a rebound. “Kudos to them,” Ruthsatz said, “they definitely had the leverage” as the Dragons made their smaller size work for them. Just as Lyon County had done the day before against CovCath.
With the game on the line in the final moments, after allowing Warren Central to dribble away 12 of the last 23.5 seconds leading by one, CovCath watched as sophomore Kade Unseld canned two free throws for the final 61-58 lead.
After accepting the blame for scoring just eight points after intermission, Ipsaro felt it was his job to knock down the tying three – and avoid the Warren Central foul. He accomplished the second, got a good look at a difficult three but it wouldn’t go down.
Sophomore Brady Hussey, CovCath’s top long-range shooter and a fellow Sweet 16 All-Tournament selection along with Ipsaro, managed to get the rebound batted his way back in the corner but his tying shot at the buzzer was off.
“A lot of swings there,” Ruthsatz said – in emotions and in the 10 lead changes that saw the Colonels leading the game for 22:20, Warren Central for just 4:42.
But the Dragons led when it mattered.
And rebounded when it mattered. “They rebounded better,” Ruthsatz said of the play down the stretch, “and hit big shots.”
With the exception of Ipsaro and Hussey (10 points with three threes), CovCath did not.
But the Colonels are “not going to change a thing,” Ruthsatz said. They’re still going to play the most-difficult travel schedule they can put together and challenge their kids to be able to handle the toughest of opponents on the biggest of stages.
Just two Colonels will not return – Rylee and sixth-man Mekhi Wilson – and now they’ll have the best motivator ever in this loss to a team CovCath probably would have beaten with a fearless, all-out, all-Ipsaro-like second-half effort.
Only that belonged to Warren Central, after outscoring CovCath 36-24 in the final 16 minutes. The Dragons were the team that lived to play, not another day as that saying goes, but another game the same day.
The game that CovCath had been planning for since the state tournament draw last month belonged to Warren Central, . . . as did this first one Saturday.
Editor’s note: George Rogers Clark won the state title, beating Warren Central 43-42.
Game photos by Brian Frey
