After a physical first half in which no one led by more than five points, Covington Catholic found their rhythm quickly in the second half.
The Colonels opened the game’s final 16 minutes against Newport with a 7-0 run and the Wildcats got no closer than four from there in a CovCath 73-63 victory in front of a packed house at Newport.
CovCath (4-1) shot 70% in the second half on the way to victory. Five hit double figures led by Caden Miller and Brady Hussey with 15 points each. Athens McGillis added 14, Nolan Ruthsatz with 11, Cash Harney with 10, Donovan Bradshaw chipped in eight off the bench. The quartet of Hussey, McGillis, Ruthsatz and Harney dished out 20 of the Colonels 22 assists in the game.
“I feel like we’re really comfortable,” Harney said. “We get the ball up the court and we don’t keep it in our hands much. We spread it a lot. We get everybody involved.”
In the highly anticipated matchup of the final game of the day in the John Turner Classic, it was the Colonels who took it to the Wildcats. Miller blocked five shots and altered many others while Newport shot just 39% in the second half and were outscored 44-34 in the game’s final 16 minutes.
“They hit big shots. Maybe as a coach you question the shot selection, but when they go in our kids are really confident,” Colonels coach Scott Ruthsatz said. “They played tough, we had a great scout leading up to this game and we were ready to go. Our guys were really confident and it showed, especially in the second half.”
Taylen Kinney led four Wildcats in double figures with 18 points, also adding seven assists.
James Turner chipped in 15, DeShaun Jackson with 14 and Jabari Covington adding 11. Despite just four turnovers, the Colonels zone forced the Wildcats to be perimeter oriented, Newport settling for 22 three-point attempts and hitting seven of them.
“We started to think about our scoring, shot selection and not getting good shots,” Wildcats coach Rod Snapp said. “That overlapped on the defensive end, we started gambling, overplaying and they shot lights out second half. They hit some tough shots and they attacked us and went right at us.”
With their full rotation back in adding football players this week from their state runner-up finish, CovCath showed their potential with the ability to knock off the defending 9th Region champs.
Newport led 29-24 late in the first half as Miller was saddled with three fouls, the third coming on a technical foul in what was a chippy game all night. But the Colonels were able to regroup and score the half’s final five points to go in tied at the break.
It was an opportunity missed for Newport as the Colonels carried it over to take a 36-29 lead.
“Usually that first four minutes dictates the whole second half,” Ruthsatz said. “Us coming out 7-0, I thought that’s where our confidence came from. We were confident going in just to be tied, we were in foul trouble and ecstatic coming out 0-0. That 7-0 run you can tell it really boosted the momentum.”
They’d lead by as much as 10 in the frame before headed to the fourth up 52-44.
CovCath built the lead to 63-47 as Miller caught an alley oop with a little over four minutes remaining. Newport responded with an 8-0 run but could inch no closer from there, a triple from Hussey with a little more than a minute remaining to close the door.
“They played a lot harder than us and were a lot more mentally tougher than us,” Snapp said. “They came out and were just consistently tougher for four quarters. Lost our composure there a bit at the end and championship teams can’t do that.”
CovCath improves to 4-1. They’ll host St. Xavier (Ohio) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Newport drops to 4-1 as they’ll head to Ryle on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
The Colonels extended their winning streak to 10 over Newport, the Wildcats last win in the series coming March 6, 2010.
COLONELS 73, WILDCATS 63
COVCATH — 12-17-23-21 — 73
NEWPORT — 15-14-15-19 — 63
Scoring
CovCath (73) – Miller 15, Hussey 15, McGillis 14, Ruthsatz 11, Harney 10, Bradshaw 8
Newport (63) – Kinney 18, Turner 15, Jackson 14, Covington 11, Silverton 3, Anderson 2
Game Stats
Field Goals: Covington Catholic 29/50, Newport 22/55
3-Pointers: Covington Catholic 8/16, Newport 7/22
Free Throws: Covington Catholic 7/10, Newport 12/16
Rebounds: Covington Catholic 23 (McGillis 5), Newport 26 (Jackson 7)
Assists: Covington Catholic 22 (McGillis 8), Newport 17 (Kinney 7)
Steals: Covington Catholic 3, Newport 4
Turnovers: Covington Catholic 10, Newport 4
Records: Covington Catholic 4-1, Newport 4-1
