Some hype surrounded the 9th Region showdown between Newport and Lloyd Memorial in
Erlanger Tuesday night.
Juggernauts’ 6-foot-8 sophomore EJ Walker had suitors from the University of Cincinnati, Dayton and Purdue in attendance. His teammate, 6-foot-3 senior Jeremiah Israel, has already signed with NKU.
On the other side, Newport boasted a pair of freshmen phenoms in guard Taylen
Kinney and forward James Turner, along with junior Jabari Covington, who are all potential D-I prospects and hold offers from D-1 schools.
The Wildcats held Walker in check all night and used a 16-2, fourth quarter run to close out Lloyd for a 55-38 win.
The Juggernauts had cut the lead to five with just under six minutes to play. Lloyd’s Elijah Collins’ fourth three-pointer of the game got the Jugs to within 39-34 at the 5:56 mark in
the final frame.
Newport answered with a Covington bucket in the paint, followed by a rebound and
putback by Turner.
Walker responded with a pretty spin move and finger roll, but those were his first and only points of the second half, trimming Newport’s lead to seven with 4:18 left.
Then came the avalanche.
Newport scored the game’s next 12 points. Covington (13 points, eight assists) on a drive to the hole. Turner finish at the rim. A steal and a run out for Turner. A press-beating layup from Marquez Miller (four points, seven rebounds) and then DeShawn Anderson (11
points) capping the run with back-to-back layups, the latter via a steal.
Just like that the Wildcats’ lead had ballooned to 19 in a span of five minutes.
Back to Walker, who figured to be a force for the Juggernauts after scoring the game’s first points – he wound up 1-for-5 in the opening half and only 1-for-2 in the second half, finishing with four points and four rebounds.
Newport’s Miller, a 6-foot-5 senior, was tasked with keeping tabs on Walker.
“Well, we challenged Miller, for sure. We just challenged him,” said Newport head coach Rodney Snapp. “Miller can guard a big. He did an outstanding job on EJ Walker, who’s a fantastic player. Miller did a really good job of containing him and just making him work for everything.”
Snapp also turned to the 6-foot-6 Turner to not only help on Walker, but Israel, who went 6-of-15 from the field, 3-of-4 from the charity stripe and grabbed nine boards.
“Of course, when you got James Turner, you know, he’s an outstanding shot blocker. We told him to kind of roam,” Snapp said. “Walker and Israel are really tough matchups one-on-one. They’re super skilled. They work on their game. They both can shoot. Israel’s a really good foul shooter, so we just wanted to keep our hands off of them. If they drove, we just told Turner to wall up and get in the way, challenge every shot.”
Turner, who finished with a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds, capped a 10-0 second-quarter Wildcats run with a steal and slam but was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
Lloyd capitalized by hitting both free throws to go with a Collins’ three to curb the momentum. Kinney came back with a drive and finger roll as time expired in the second quarter to give the visitors a 23-13 halftime advantage.
Poor shooting plagued the Jugs in the first half, just 5-of-23. But they got hot in the third
quarter. Israel got a loose ball layup, which was followed by a trio of triples – Collins (12 points) with a pair sandwiched around one from freshman Anthony Blaackar. Then Israel buried a long jumper to cap an 11-0 spurt and pull Lloyd to within 30-28 with 3:04 remaining in the third.
It was 35-30 Newport after three. However, the Juggernauts were held to only three made field goals in the fourth.
Newport improves to 4-2 and hosts Dixie Heights Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Lloyd is now 2-2 and travels to Dayton to meet Belmont (OH) on Saturday at 6 p.m.