Newport coach Rod Snapp won his 200th career game on Tuesday, No. 201 probably felt a little bit better on Saturday.
The Wildcats traveled a few miles down the road and came away with a win at Highlands, 57-50.
Newport (12-3, 1-0) controlled tempo, held the third highest scoring team in the state to 50 on their home floor and got a big 36th District seed win.
“Playing against a high-powered offense like Highlands, you got to be super disciplined and can’t have a lot of slippage. You’ve got one of the highest scoring teams in the state and some of the best shooters in the state,” Snapp said.
With the high-flying James Turner, who wowed the crowd with a putback dunk in the first half, the dynamic Taylen Kinney paired with Jabari Covington in the backcourt and Marquez Miller, getting the Wildcats to sit down and guard, control tempo and be patient on the offensive end is a credit to Snapp and his staff.
“It’s the kids. A lot of these kids play basketball year round. They really enjoy basketball. They really enjoy each other. It’s a family bond. All the guys get along well, they kind of feed off each other. They try to win for each other. They play for each other. You don’t get that often. It’s a special group when that starts to happen. Hopefully it consistently happens,” Snapp said.
As expected for this max capacity contest in Fort Thomas, it was what you can call a good ‘ole good one. Newport owned the largest lead at 10 in the first half, but it was short-lived as the Bluebirds (11-5, 1-1) ended the first half on a 11-4 run to get within 29-26 at the break.
The Wildcats continued to grind things out in the second half, the two teams continuing to trade blows…and baskets. The third alone saw a couple of lead changes and four ties, Tay Kinney’s thunderous dunk near the end of the quarter giving Newport a 41-39 lead after three.
Kinney drove the middle, saw a lane and cocked back with one hand to throw one down.
It even surprised him.
“I didn’t even think I was going to dunk it at first either. But my energy was up,” Kinney said.
Kinney’s poise as a freshman, one of the highly regarded 2026’s in the state along with Turner kept their cool in a hostile environment. Playing high-level AAU, these games are second nature to them.
But in a hostile environment?
“These are the best games,” Kinney said with a smile.
Turner and Kinney scored the next five for Newport, Kinney’s 3-point play giving the Wildcats a 46-42 lead with just under five minutes to play.
Highlands surely wouldn’t go away, Carson Class’ second 3-pointer of the quarter making it a 49-48 game with less than three minutes to play, just the Bluebirds sixth and final 3-pointer of the game.
But lone Wildcats senior Marquez Miller had a response on the other end with a two-handed dunk, DaShawn Anderson and Jabari Covington then hitting 1-of-2 attempts at the line to make it 53-48 Wildcats with a minute to play.
Seth Ryan got the Bluebirds within a possession on a layup, Highlands getting a chance after Covington missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
But as they had done for the majority of the night, Newport locked in on the defensive end, forced a turnover and Kinney hit four free throws in the closing seconds to preserve the victory.
Kinney would finish with 15 points to lead Newport and added five assists, Covington with 13, Miller adding 12 while Turner had seven points and eight rebounds. Newport shot 53 percent from the field, 44 percent from three and hit 9-of-13 free throws while winning the rebounding battle 27-19.
“They played hard, they listened to our game plan and what we wanted to do. They made big plays, I thought Kinney made some big plays at the end there. I thought Jabari Covington did a really good job of taking care of things offensively in the halfcourt and breaking the press down. I also thought Turner was big and Miller on the glass, making everything difficult on shots in the paint. They’re really good at getting downhill in the paint and finishing around the rim,” Snapp said.
Newport won’t have much time to rest as they’ll take on Beechwood at the Den on Tuesday in a 9th Region All “A” tournament quarterfinal matchup.
Highlands was paced by Seth Ryan with 14 points, Nathan Vinson adding 11, leading scorer Will Herald held to six points. The Bluebirds shot 44 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and hit 4-of-6 free throws. Ryan added six rebounds and five assists.
The Bluebirds return to action Tuesday when they host Simon Kenton.
