Conner entered their meeting with Newport with one clear expectation: a response.
Riding a three-game losing streak, the Cougars refused to let it stretch any further, battling their way to a hard-fought, 73-69 victory over another top Ninth Region contender in Newport.
“Our guys know what we’re capable of,” Conner head coach Nathan Browning said. “We had some illnesses, some injuries, so we’ve hit a little bit of adversity, but we’ve talked about being able to fight through it. As you get older, that’s life. We use that as a lesson for life in general.”
It wasn’t just one player carrying the expectation—Conner proved it with five players scoring in double figures.
Finn Louden led the way with 21 points, drilling five 3-pointers, while Chase Huff contributed 16. Tyler Warner added 13, Landon Warner scored 12 and Brady Bushman rounded out the balanced attack with 11.
“It opens it up for everyone,” Louden said. “If I’m hot, then it opens it up for Chase, Landon, Brady, and Tyler. Everyone can score. Everyone has that ability.”
Newport, fueled by James Turner’s dominant 25-point, 11-rebound performance, certainly required an answer from the Cougars—especially with their defensive pressure.
The Cougars landed their first few punches, leading 19-11 after one and 34-22 at halftime. True to form, they showcased their shooting prowess, draining 10 three-pointers throughout the game.
“I told them if they hit 10 threes, we will not win,” Newport coach Rod Snapp said. “And they made 10. We were hoping that we could try to keep them in front of us. They have a nice team that plays really well and really hard. They wanted to beat us more than we wanted to beat them.”
However, the Wildcats responded with an 8-0 run to start the second half, narrowing the gap to just four by the end of the third quarter.
Newport just couldn’t push past the hurdle, though.
“You’ve got to be very fundamentally sound defensively,” Snapp said. “You can’t grab or pull and put a really good free-throw team at the line. We had some bailout grabs, rotated when we shouldn’t have, and that hurt us.”
Despite Louden fouling out in the final quarter and the Wildcats once again cutting the lead to four after being down 12 just minutes before, Conner stayed strong.
What did Conner do about it?
They took the last punch and stayed on their feet.
“When they pressed at the end, having Finn out hurt us,” Browning said. “He’s a terrific ball-handler, so not having him in there, when we’re used to having him in those situations, we had other guys step up. They came out and got it done.”
A much-needed victory for the Cougars, as they bounced back from three tough losses to improve to 16-7 on the season.
“We’re on the right path now,” Louden said. “We’re gonna get the ball rolling. We’re not gonna lose.”
They continue a challenging stretch, with upcoming games against Lawrenceburg (IN) and two more top teams in the region—Covington Catholic and Lloyd Memorial—to close out the regular season.
Newport drops to 15-10, marking their first double-digit loss season since 2022.
They have just one regular season game left, a rematch with Beechwood from the 9th Region All “A” championship Tuesday in Fort Mitchell at 7:30 p.m.
Photo gallery below, provided by Charles Bolton:
COUGARS 73, WILDCATS 69
CONNER — 19-15-9-30— 73
NEWPORT — 11-11-17-30— 69
Scoring
CONNER (73)— Louden 21, Huff 16, T. Warner 13, L. Warner 12, Bushman 11
NEWPORT (69) — Turner 25, Am. Lowe 17, Nichols 8, Rondon 7, Starks 6, Anderson 4, AJ Lowe 2
Game Stats
Field Goals: Conner 25/47, Newport 28/49
3-Pointers: Conner 10/18, Newport 3/14
Free Throws: Conner 13/15, Newport 10/19
Rebounds: Conner 28, Newport 32
Assists: Conner 17, Newport 15
Turnovers: Conner 14, Newport 11
Steals: Conner 7, Newport 4
Blocks: Conner 1, Newport 7
Fouls: Conner 21, Newport 13
Records: Conner 16-7, Newport 15-10