Maybe a couple of early season losses and not at full strength kept Conner under the radar as they started 2-3.
They’ve now put the target squarely on their back.
The Cougars went into Park Hills on Tuesday night and came away with a 74-68 victory over Covington Catholic, defeating the state’s No. 2 team and snapping a 15-game losing streak to their Ninth Region foes dating all the way back to 2008.
The bulls-eye grows.
“I’m hoping that they understand that. We talked a little bit about it afterwards, we’ll continue to talk about it, but our mentality has to be just the next game,” Cougars coach Matthew Otte said. “It’s great that we won tonight. Season’s not over because we won. We have to keep playing and have a district game on Friday. The target’s even bigger now so we have to take the next two days and make sure we’re prepared and go out and do it again on Friday.”
Conner did it with defense, holding the Colonels to 35% shooting and got big contributions from Dalton Kramer with 21 points and eight rebounds, Landen Hamilton finishing with 20 points.
“We always preach getting defensive stops. Defense leads to everything, so when we get defensive stops early in the game we were able to get going in transition and hit open shots,” Kramer said.
Hamilton hit a jumper in the third for his 1,000th career point, Otte took a timeout for him to be recognized, but Hamilton had just one thing on his mind at the moment.
“It means a lot, it’s great, but I was more worried about the win. Glad we got the win against a good team,” Hamilton said as he walked back toward the huddle and had some words for his teammates. “I just told them I was ready to go win. Forget about it, this is a good accomplishment, but let’s go get the win.”
Hamilton’s jumper for his milestone got the Cougars to a 39-27 lead after taking a 33-26 lead into the break, CovCath held to 9-of-30 shooting in the game’s first 16 minutes.
The lead extended to 43-27 with 5:25 left in the third on a Grant Reece layup, a 10-1 run out of the break when the Cougars knew that the Colonels were a strong third quarter team.
“We talked about it yesterday, going over scouting stuff. We reminded of them again at halftime that’s kind of what they do. Scott (Ruthsatz) and everybody over there gets them ready to do that and I thought we came out and did a good job weathering it,” Otte said.
They led by as much as 17, a Kramer no-look pass to Ayden Lohr for a dunk, making it 53-36 in the closing stretch of the third.
“Just playing, in the heat of the moment and glad Ayden finished it,” Kramer said.
It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when the Colonels would mount their comeback. But as CovCath tried to respond, Conner had a response for pretty much the entire fourth.
CovCath was able to get the deficit all the way down to four, but it was a little too late as Kascyl McGillis’ 3-pointer made it 72-68 with 10.9 seconds left. Hamilton hit two free throws from there to seal the deal, the Cougars hitting 16-of-18 from the charity stripe in the final frame.
The Colonels were unable to establish any sort of offensive rhythm all evening, shooting 34 three-pointers and hitting 12. Evan Ipsaro did what he could to will the Colonels back in it, finishing with 24 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Kascyl McGillis added 23 points. CovCath faces Holmes at Thursday at home. Tuesday’s loss at home was their first since January 26, 2021, when St. Xavier (Ohio) knocked them off, snapping a 19-game home winning streak.
After Kramer’s 21 and Hamilton’s 20, Lohr had 11 points and six rebounds for the Cougars. They host Boone County on Friday. Conner has now won nine of their last 10, the lone loss a two-point one to St. Charles out of Columbus.
