The stands were packed and the crowd waiting in anticipation. Many funneled out of the gym after halftime and much of the stands were empty heading into the fourth quarter.
The Newport Wildcats led by 24 at the half and 42 by the end of the third quarter in their 76-26 rout of the Highlands Bluebirds.
“I feel like every guy that was in the game played their heart out with a high motor and they just competed at a high level,” said Newport Head Coach Rodney Snapp. “That’s what we’re trying to work on so we can play eight or nine guys and try not to miss a beat. It worked out tonight.”
After a slow start on both sides, the game was tied 5-5 before Newport erupted for a 15-2 run in which they never looked back. The Wildcats outscored the Bluebirds by 11 in the second quarter to extend the lead to 24. Highlands opened the game in a 2-3 zone and attempted to make Newport’s offense work exclusively from the outside.
“Our goal is to get two feet in the lane if we can and then we’d like to hit guys cutting into the paint and then we can skip it. We don’t want to just sit out there and roam around the arc and jack up threes,” said Snapp. “We want to attack the zone, we want to be more aggressive.”
Going into halftime with a lead has been a reoccurring theme for these Wildcats, but finishing strong has been an elusive goal. Newport played their best ball in the third quarter Friday night putting the game completely out of reach. Newport extended their lead from 24 to 42 in the third quarter with their ability to cause chaos on defense and control the game on offense.
“We try to keep the lead because we’ve lost a few leads this year and let people come back. So we try to just keep our foot on the gas,” said Newport guard Jabari Covington. “We got to finish the games off in the second half. Don’t let teams stick around.”
Covington scored 15 on the night while also adding five assists, a steal and two blocked shots. His experience pushes him to control the pace of the game, especially in transition. While forcing 11 turnovers, the Wildcats were still able to turn those turnovers into 18 fast break points.
“Just try to take what’s open, don’t force anything,” said Covington on playing in transition. “If it’s a fast break by myself I try to pull it out and wait for my teammates to get back.”
Facing a team that averages over 60 points per game and has scored 87 once this season, Newport knew its defense had to be at its best. At its best it was as the Bluebirds were held to 18% from the field and 14% from the 3-point line.
“They’re very good on the ball defenders and they’ve got good length and they do a great job of closing out to the shooters,” said Highlands coach Kevin Listerman. “A lot of credit to them they did a good job of taking away some of the things that we like to do.”
Highlands played almost exclusively with a five-guard lineup, hoping this would create mismatches with the big men of Newport. However, Newport’s 6-foot-8 bigs James Turner and Griffin Starks did a tremendous job keeping the ball in front and forcing tough jump shots.
“We try to make our bigs guard guards. We work on that in practice. We tell our big guys just stay on your feet wall up one hand up,” said Snapp. “We tell them to just make them shoot through you. Make them shoot over you.”
Newport’s next task is conquering the 9th Region All “A” Classic Tournament the upcoming week. They open with Heritage Academy on Tuesday at 7:45 p.m.
Highlands has a short bounce back as they play Saturday afternoon hosting Lexington Christian Academy at 4 p.m.
Wildcats 76, Bluebirds 26
Newport -20-22-24-10 -76
Highlands -7-11-6-2 -26
Scoring
Newport (76): Taylen Kinney 18, Covington 15, Deshaun Jackson 14, Turner 9, Starks 5, Deshawn Anderson 4, Noah Silverton 4, Amontae Lowe 3, Rodzion Thompson 2, Irvan Nichols 2
Highlands (26): Brayden Moeves 7, Nathan Vinson 6, Daniel Schick 5, Nathan Rickard 4, Nathan Kirst 2, Dominic Gregory 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Newport 7/15, Highlands 3/21
Free Throws: Newport 7/9, Highlands 7/11
Fouls: Newport 10, Highlands 11
Records: Newport 13-3, Highlands 8-6