For years under veteran head coach Dave Faust, the St. Henry Crusaders boys basketball team has been contenders for both the 34th District and many times the 9th Region crowns since he took over in 1993.
The Crusaders (4-7, 2-0) ventured near the Ohio River to take on an eager Ludlow Panthers squad (8-3, 0-1) trying to make strides in the 34th District. St. Henry showed it is still ways ahead of Ludlow scoring the game’s first nine points and never looking back on its way to an 86-49 win to move to 2-0 in district seed action.
“We’ve had leads where we couldn’t hold them,” Faust said. “But (Tuesday), we got the lead and we kept the lead. We’ve been working on picking up for an injury and getting some people in. We started off well on defense. Then I thought our defense in the second half was really good. We know we got a ways to go. We’re just trying to improve.”
Ludlow in particular had no answer for St. Henry’s leading scorer in senior 6-foot-6 center Braden Fedders. The Crusaders found him deep near the basket and he often finished or put back offensive rebounds on his way to 21 points.
“They’ve been doing it all year,” Fedders said. “(My teammates) find me when I’m open. All credit to them. I’m putting it in. I’ve played with these kids almost all my life so we know what we can do. We have a good team.”
That opened things up for his teammates as 10 different Crusaders ended up scoring including four in double figures hitting 80 percent of their free throws. Senior forward/guard Matt Resing followed with 16 points and senior guard Ethan Kaiser made two three-pointers on his way to 14 points with junior guard Andrew Reis making three triples on his way to 11 points. St. Henry’s other senior center Alex Hammond scored eight.
“Ludlow has a really good team. You have to give them a compliment. We’re so big that we just work on getting (the ball inside) and drawing fouls because we’re so much taller than (Ludlow) then hitting our free throws,” Kaiser said. “We pass the ball around hitting the open guy and doing what we’re supposed to do.”
St. Henry led 28-5 after the first quarter causing Ludlow to burn a couple timeouts. The Crusaders then scored the first nine points of the second quarter to go up 37-5 before the Panthers found their shooting touch, scoring 21 points in the final four minutes of the first half to trim the Crusader lead to 47-26 at halftime.
Ludlow’s three leading scorers hit double figures. But St. Henry made them work for it. Senior guard Jaxson Rice finished with 24 after coming in averaging 30.6 points per game. Sophomore guard Spencer Bradenburg and junior Elijah Perrin followed with 12 and 10 respectively after coming in averaging 14.9 and 10.9 points per game.
The Panthers hit 50 percent from the free-throw line. Ludlow is hoping to see some players return including the fourth leading scorer in junior guard Ethan Powell.
“When you get down early like that, it becomes really hard,” said Aaron Stamm, Ludlow head coach. “We got hit in the mouth and we have to try to bounce back and hopefully see them again. We have to play a lot tougher. That was the key in the first half. We didn’t match their toughness.”
St. Henry hit the running clock midway through the third quarter when Resing slammed home a dunk to make it 66-30. The Crusaders led 74-41 entering the fourth quarter.
St. Henry travels to Scott (3-8) on Thursday for a non-region game at 6 p.m. and Ludlow goes to Lockland (Ohio) for a 7:30 p.m. game.
Other Boys Basketball Scores
Conner 66, Dublin (Ohio) Coffman 65
Covington Catholic 65, Riviera Beach (Florida) Suncoast 45
Villa Madonna 71, Frankfort Christian 52
Beechwood 70, Louisville Seneca 61
McCracken County 59, Highlands 43
Basketball, Girls
Highlands 50, Roger Bacon (Ohio) 36
The Bluebirds moved to 8-4 with the road win behind sophomore 6-2 Marissa Green’s triple-double of 16 points, 16 rebounds and 10 blocks.
Freshman guard Saylor Macke added nine points and eight rebounds and freshman forward Katie Bucher scored nine as Highlands nabbed 38 rebounds.
Highlands does not play again until Ryle (8-3) comes to town Jan. 3 for a 7:30 p.m. game.
Cooper 67, Rowan County 50
A near triple-double from Cooper’s Whitney Lind helped the Jaguars win their sixth straight game in Morehead on Tuesday.
Lind posted 11 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists in the victory, three others hitting double-figure scoring as Logan Palmer collected 16 points, Liz Freihofer with 13 and Kay Freihofer with 10. Cooper outrebounded Rowan 40-26 in the contest, pulling away in the fourth after leading 45-40 after three.
Cooper (8-2) is on the road again Wednesday playing at Russell at 2 p.m.
Other Girls Basketball Scores
Bishop Brossart 52, Boyle County 45
Scott 80, Shelby County 41
