There’s no easy outs in the boys 33rd District this season and Friday night showed more evidence of that. Ryle took down Cooper to create a potential logjam for the No. 1 seed come district tournament time. In the girls game, a defensive battle ensued with Cooper finishing the game on a 11-3 run over the final 5:31 to prevail and win their 13th straight.
Here’s how it went down:
GIRLS
Cooper 38, Ryle 32
In a battle of two of the top 10 teams in the state, Cooper entering at No. 3, Ryle at No. 9, it was quite the defensive battle as both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net.
Trailing 29-27 after a Quinn Eubank jumper at the elbow, Cooper rattled off nine straight points to keep their winning streak alive.
“We hung our hat on that defensive end, we got stops when we needed to and there’s gonna be nights where we don’t shoot well,” Jaguars coach Justin Holthaus said. “We got to make sure we’re consistent on the defensive end and I thought our girls did a good job of that tonight. Felt like a rock fight tonight.”
Ryle didn’t score again until the closing seconds on a Eubank 3-point play, but there wasn’t enough time on the clock to mount a comeback. The Raiders had to play the final two and a half quarters a little shorthanded as Sarah Baker exited with an undisclosed injury and did not return.
“You miss her presence. It allows Quinn to be on the outside a lot more which is her true position and Sarah is such a threat,” Raiders coach Katie Haitz said. “You have to pay attention to her all the time in there and gives our offense a lot of different looks and we had to change things up because of that.”
Despite being down their second leading scorer and a vital part of their offense and defense, Ryle hung tough and had a lead in the fourth. They were also without 6-foot-5 seventh grader Jayden McClain out with an injury who helps provide a big presence on the inside.
“Looking at it hindsight we were able to get some of those younger girls in to for them to be in that big spotlight and needing that step up whether it’s an injury or in foul trouble,” Haitz said. “Never want to see anyone get hurt, but you do have to look at it that way. Able to play with them and being down a couple players, that’s huge for us.”
Quinn Eubank and Jaelyn Jones combined to score 29 of the 32 Raider points, Eubank with 20, Jones with nine. Eubank was the only one to score in the pivotal fourth with seven points.
Cooper can point to some fatigue as Friday was their 18th game of the season that’s seen them travel to Louisville and the surrounding area six times, Mt. Sterling and Franklin County. Their shooting percentages have been way down the last two games, but one thing they can always hang their hat on is on the defensive end.
“We always put a lot of emphasis on our defense because we know nights like this happen and shots just don’t fall,” Jaguars senior Liz Freihofer said. “This happened to be one of those nights, so it’s nice that we can relieve ourselves and know that we don’t always have to put the ball in the hole if we can just keep them from getting the ball in the basket.”
They virtually shut everyone else down outside of Eubank and Jones, a Kassidy Peters 3-pointer in the first quarter the only other Raider points.
Logan Palmer led the Jaguars with 13 points, Freihofer with nine. Cooper hit 13-of-14 from the free throw line, knocking down 9-of-10 over the final 3:21 of the game.
“Thought we shied away from contact early,” Holthaus said. “Thought a little bit in that second half we were getting to the rim a little bit more and a little bit more physical. When you’re in a game like this you got to find a way and that was a part of it for sure.”
After Ryle won 23 of the first 26 meetings between the two, Cooper has won six straight in the series. The two won’t meet again in the regular season, but don’t be shocked if they don’t meet twice more, once in the 33rd District championship and once in the 9th Region championship.
JAGUARS 38, RAIDERS 32
COOPER — 8-7-10-13 — 38
RYLE — 7-8-10-7 — 32
Scoring
Cooper (38) — Palmer 13, Freihofer 9, Deere 6, Thompson 4, Noel 4, Alexander 2
Ryle (32) — Eubank 20, Jones 9, Peters 3
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Cooper 1, Ryle 1
Free Throws: Cooper 13/14, Ryle 5/9
Records: Cooper 16-3, Ryle 10-7
BOYS
Ryle 57, Cooper 52
This one meant a lot to the Raiders. So much so that the student section stormed the court after the victory and the locker room looked like flood waters with the celebration afterwards.
The Raiders locked in down the stretch, held Cooper to just three points over the final five minutes and executed just enough in the closing minutes for the pivotal 33rd District victory.
“Anytime you play a team that is as well coached as a Tim Sullivan coached team and you can somehow escape with a win, it feels really good,” Raiders coach Nick Dorning said. “Our kids wanted it as bad as I’ve ever seen them want anything. It started in practice with our scout team doing a great job, every single one of our coaches watching multiple games on film and we felt our kids were well prepared and we felt if we matched Cooper’s toughness that we’d have an opportunity to win and we felt like we did that tonight.”
It was a tight one throughout, Cooper leading by eight early, but a 9-0 run by Ryle got things to any margin for error being minimal. Cooper led 24-23 at the break, but Ryle opened with a 6-0 run out of the half.
While Dorning felt like his kids brought the toughness, the same couldn’t be said on the other sideline.
“Number one, hats off to Ryle and they just flat out out-toughed us,” Jaguars coach Tim Sullivan said. “They were the tougher team tonight, more physical team tonight. I thought that we kind of just wanted to float through the game and maybe try to win it at the end. They were the hungrier, tougher team tonight.”
Yamil Rondon and Shaun Pouncy combined for 18 of the 19 Cooper points in the third and helping them retake the advantage 43-41 going into the fourth. Pouncy opened the fourth with a layup, but Ryle responded with four straight on a Landon Lorms floater and two Logan Verax free throws.
It was the first of three ties in the fourth as the two kept trading blows, Ryle not doing itself any favors at the free throw line as they missed six straight from the charity stripe after the two Verax makes.
Evan Smith’s layup in transition on a Lorms pass made it 53-49 with three minutes remaining, a Pouncy putback on the other end getting the Jaguars back within two.
Jaidan Combs hit one of two free throws with a chance to tie it with 1:56 to play, Lorms with a putback on the other end to make it a three-point game with 1:18 to go.
The Jaguars had multiple opportunities from there to tie or get within one, but down the stretch they couldn’t find a bucket and the Raiders escaped after two Anthony Coppola free throws to seal the deal with 25 seconds remaining.
Coppola missed two earlier in the quarter, but his 6 a.m. shootaround on Friday morning in the gym paid off.
“This was a huge statement game for us,” Coppola said. “Just trying to feel comfortable and stay confident and I was confident in myself to end the game.”
Coppola finished with 11 points while guiding the offense at the point.
“How about that young man,” Dorning said. “I will take my point guard up against anybody. We rely on Anthony a lot and our guys see him as a leader even though he’s a sophomore. He sent me a text last night seeing if he could get in the gym at 6 a.m. this morning to get shots up and he was at the free throw line for half that time.”
Ryle displayed what makes them dangerous on a nightly basis…balance. Four players hit double figures led by Landon Lorms with 13 points, Coppola and Jonathan DeGroff with 11 while Evan Smith chipped in 10 off the bench. Logan Verax added eight, knocking down two 3-pointers.
The Ryle victory sets up an interesting Jan. 19. The Raiders play at Conner while Cooper hosts Boone County. A Rebels win clinches them the No. 1 seed for the 33rd District Tournament. However, a Jaguars and Raiders victory puts the three in a three-way tie at 2-1 for the No. 1 seed.
“When you play in the 33rd District this is exactly what you get,” Sullivan said. “I told my guys after the game you stand here and watch, watch how they celebrate. It means something because of who they’re playing, it means something. When they figure that out and come to compete everyday in practice to get to the point of when teams come at you, you stay very tight. I didn’t think we were very tight.”
Cooper was paced by Pouncy with 22, Rondon with 15. The two combined for 24 of the 28 Jaguar points in the second half.
RAIDERS 57, JAGUARS 52
Scoring
COOPER (52) — Pouncy 22, Rondon 15, Combs 6, Rodriguez 3, Brown 3, Blackburn 2, Johnson 1
RYLE (57) — Lorms 13, Coppola 11, DeGroff 11, Smith 10, Verax 8, Reynolds 4
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Cooper 2, Ryle 3
Free Throws: Cooper 10/16, Ryle 11/20
Records: Cooper 9-7, Ryle 9-6