Caden Miller had missed Covington Catholic’s last three games and helped lead the Colonels to a fifth straight 35th District championship with a 77-55 win over Beechwood.
Miller, the co-KABC Player of the Year scored 18 points and grab nine rebounds as he recovered from an injury.
The Colonels shot over 50% from the field, outscoring Beechwood 22-10 in the first quarter then extended it to 35-16 at halftime. The Tigers trimmed things to 53-38 after three quarters before the Colonels scored 24 in the fourth quarter.
“Beechwood hit some big shots when you thought we were going to pull away,” CovCath head coach Scott Ruthsatz said. “They’d hit a two or three. We’d miss a free throw and they’d come back down and score. (Beechwood head) Coach (Ross) Hart had his team ready to go. We played them two months ago and it was a totally different team. He’s done a great job bringing them along throughout the season.”
The Colonels put five players in double figures. Brady Hussey scored 15, including his 1,000th career point with Athens McGillis and Cash Harney scoring 12 each and Donovan Bradshaw added 11. Harney also had five assists.
“For our guys, it’s about controlling the game, getting the ball in the right hands, moving the ball and just playing good defense,” Ruthsatz said. “I thought we did that to kind of get them to a point where it was going to take a really triumphant effort to get back in the game, especially when we were able to get to the free-throw line really early in both the third and the fourth quarters.”
Carson Blackburn scored 22 points to lead Beechwood, connecting on three of the team’s seven 3-pointers and Jack Sullivan scored 12 to go with eight rebounds.
Both teams advance to the 9th Region Tournament. CovCath (25-5) takes on either Highlands, Ryle or Dixie Heights and Beechwood (16-14) faces Newport, Cooper or Lloyd Memorial. The tournament draw is Saturday morning at 9 a.m.