The boys’ 35th District tournament semifinals played out Wednesday night in Fort Mitchell. Holy Cross earned a spot in the district championship with a win over Beechwood, while Covington Catholic took down Holmes.
Here’s how they went down:
Holy Cross 76, Beechwood 57
The third time was the charm for Holy Cross.
After back-to-back heartbreaks against Beechwood in the semifinals—falling by a combined seven points over the past two seasons—the Indians finally broke through, dominating the Tigers 76-57 in the 35th District Tournament semifinals in Fort Mitchell.
“We had last season in the back of our head,” Holy Cross coach Ricardo Johnson said. “But we just tried to control what we can control. We just tried to go back, look at tendencies. As we prepared, it was in the back of our head for sure.”
Beechwood entered the game shorthanded missing senior Jack Sullivan, the team’s leading scorer this season and over 1,000 career points.
“It’s tough. You can’t replace a one person like that,” Tiger coach Ross Hart said. “You just ask the whole team to individually step your game up as best they can. There’s no replacing Jack Sullivan, especially six days before your district game.”
After dealing with injuries of their own in the weeks leading up to the tournament, Holy Cross finally returned to full strength—and it showed.
Brady Gabbard led the way with 19 points as the Indians had four players score in double figures. Luke Arlinghaus added 14, William McElheney notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Nate Rominger chipped in 10 to round out the balanced attack.
“That’s our team,” Gabbard said. “All of us can shoot every night. You get Luke hitting threes like that, Gavin (Goetz) hitting like that and then you got Will and Nate. It all pieces together. Our shots fall when we shoot them.”
As expected, the energy in the gym was electric, and the Indians fed off the intensity.
“Since I’ve been here the last two years, I think our community and our school has done an unbelievable job,” Johnson said. We appreciate that from the bottom of our hearts.”
Fueled by the crowd and taking advantage of Beechwood missing its primary ball-handler in Sullivan, Holy Cross cranked up the pressure with an aggressive press.
Trailing 19-12 with 6:49 left in the second quarter, the Indians tightened their defense and unleashed a relentless 33-9 run over the next 11:46.
“We were gassed,” Hart said. “We don’t have a whole lot of ball handlers, even Carson Blackburn, who’s our points guard, he’s a two guard, who kind of became a point guard by default this year. But we really struggled handling the ball tonight and even when we did beat the press we never got anything.”
After Holy Cross took a 26-23 lead into halftime, they erupted for 27 points in the third for a 53-37 edge.
Holy Cross seized the momentum for good early in the fourth, highlighted by a Brady Gabbard flush, and eventually stretched the lead beyond 20 points.
Beechwood’s season comes to an end at 16-11, with the Tigers set to lose key seniors Carson Blackburn, Jack Sullivan, Austin Navin, and Ayden Way to graduation.
The Indians secured their fourth straight win as they head into Friday’s 7 p.m. championship game against Covington Catholic, looking for their first victory over the Colonels since 2016.
INDIANS 76, TIGERS 57
HOLY CROSS — 12-14-27-23 — 76
BEECHWOOD — 13-10-14-20 — 57
Scoring
Holy Cross (76) — Gabbard 19, Arlinghaus 14, McElheney 13, Rominger 10, Goetz 8, Urlage 7, Adams 2, Hunt 2
Beechwood (57) — Blackburn 22, Urlage 16, Way 4, Brockett 3, Coppage 3, Stephenson 3, Navin 2, Popham 2, Smith 2
Game Stats
Field Goals: Beechwood 16/38, Holy Cross 25/47
3-Pointers: Beechwood 7/18, Holy Cross 6/16
Free Throws: Beechwood 18/21, Holy Cross 22/28
Rebounds: Beechwood 19, Holy Cross 29
Assists: Beechwood 7, Holy Cross 11
Turnovers: Beechwood 14, Holy Cross 11
Steals: Beechwood 6, Holy Cross 5
Blocks: Beechwood 0, Holy Cross 2
Fouls: Beechwood 23, Holy Cross 19
Records: Beechwood 16-12, Holy Cross 17-10
Covington Catholic 87, Holmes 44
Jake Thelen wasted no time securing his first district tournament victory as Covington Catholic’s head coach.
Winning their 12th tournament game in a row, the Colonels poured it on the Bulldogs in a commanding 87-44 victory.
Covington Catholic’s pressure defense created challenges for Holmes from the start, as the Colonels jumped to a 19-6 lead after the first quarter. Although the Bulldogs managed to pull within nine, CovCath responded with a powerful 26-13 run, extending their advantage to 45-23 by halftime.
CovCath (22-8) built a commanding 71-32 lead at the end of the third quarter to get the game to a running clock.
The usual stars led the way for the Colonels: Cash Harney shined with 24 points on an impressive 11-of-15 shooting, while Athens McGillis contributed 21 points. Donovan Bradshaw also made his mark, nearly achieving a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Holmes’ first season under Sam Elsbernd concludes with a record of 15-14, marking the most wins for the program since the 2015-2016 season. Their struggle Wednesday night was illustrated by 24 turnovers to just 16 made field goals.
Joseph Meyer led the Bulldogs with 11 points on the evening. Dominic Scott followed with nine. Meyer and Scott make up two of the four-man senior class for Holmes. Junior and 1,000-point scorer Mark McCutchen added seven points.