It was the boys turn at Boone County High School Wednesday night in the 33rd District basketball tournament semifinals.
Cooper took on Boone County as coach Tim Sullivan and senior Andy Johnson hit milestones in the Jaguars victory over the Rebels. Sullivan got career win No. 300 and Johnson scored his 1,000th career point in the 67-20 victory.
In the nightcap, Ryle pulled away from Conner for a 74-59 victory. The Raiders and Jaguars will meet on Friday back at Boone County at 7 p.m. for the championship.
Here’s how they went down:
Ryle 74, Conner 59
Talk about a game of runs. Ryle just had more of them.
The Raiders utilized runs of 17-0, 12-2, 12-0 and 8-2 to eventually pull away from the Cougars.
“It was a lot like the last game against them,” Raiders guard Anthony Coppola said. “We made a run towards the end of the first half, they got their they got their energy back in the second half. But this time we took the hit and we settled down a little bit, handled the pressure, and we were able to close it out.”
Landon Lorms led a balanced Ryle attack with 27 points as at least five players scored nine points. Coppola followed with 15, Jonathan DeGroff adding 12 while AJ Davis and Holden Smith went for nine.
Lorms’ 27 points puts him eight shy of the program’s all-time scoring record, a mark he’s set to hit on Friday against Cooper.
“It means a lot,” Lorms said. “Since day one these guys have had my back and it’s not just an individual accomplishment, it’s a team accomplishment. They’ve got me here and they’ve opened up every game for me and I couldn’t ask for a better team. It’s their accomplishment as well as mine.”
Lorms wants to make sure a victory comes with it.
“Landon is a phenomenal basketball player and a brilliant young man,” Raiders coach Nick Dorning said. “He’s never once said anything about setting the record or scoring points. Every time he talks to me he just wants to win. That kid’s desire and passion to win is what makes him as tough as he is.”
While Lorms led the way in the scoring department, it was some big shot-making by Davis in the fourth that helped the Raiders seal the victory. Conner’s run of 14-2 turned a 57-39 Ryle lead into a 59-53 game with 3:42 to play. The Raiders needed time to gather themselves.
Coppola was the leader in a timeout.
“I’m going to give a lot of credit to my point guard, Anthony Coppola,” Dorning said. “He brought those guys together. I don’t know if I said two words in that huddle and then right as they walked out, we gave them the plan. They executed the plan late. Ended up building the lead against a really good team and a really good staff.”
The Raiders came out of the timeout and Davis nailed a corner trey to get the momentum back on Ryle’s side, closing out the game on a 14-6 run from that point.
DeGroff was key in the rebounding battle, pulling down double-digit rebounds.
“We knew we were going to have to be physical and rebound,” Cougars coach Nathan Browning said. “We’ve known that since July. We got better at it, but they are just big and physical and tough around the basket. We just had a really hard time rebounding and keeping them off the boards. Just didn’t quite rebound well enough, didn’t execute well enough.”
Conner had some runs themselves. After Finn Louden’s blistering start in which he scored the Cougars first 14 of 16 points, they fell down in a 30-16 hole after a Ryle 17-0 run.
But they responded with a 12-0 run to get within two, only to surrender a personal Coppola run of 7-0 before the half to give Ryle a 37-28 edge at the break.
Trailing 45-39 with less than three minutes to go in the third quarter, the Cougars squandered multiple opportunities to inch closer, including a pair of missed free throws, Ryle made them pay with a 12-0 run to make it 57-39 early into the fourth.
But the Cougars weren’t done as they ramped up the pressure and got the deficit back down to six, but playing the catch up game eventually caught up to them in the loss.
“When you get down and you dig a hole like that, you got to try to pressure,” Browning said. “You’re going to gamble and take some chances. It paid off for us a couple times and then a couple times it bit us. They were able to get down the floor and get an easy bucket because we were pressuring so high in the back court.”
They close out their season 18-10, the first under Browning with six seniors departing including starters Chase Huff, Riley Abousaleh and Landon Warner.
“Life in general is hard. When you go through life, things are going to be hard,” Browning said. “Losing a game like this before you feel like you should, having to deal with the pain and the losing, it’s just going to make them stronger as they go through life. We talked about how you never take for granted what you have, because you don’t know when it’s going to be gone. These are some of the hardest working kids I’ve coached, just unfortunate it had to end tonight.”
Louden led Conner with 19 points, Huff with 14 and Warner 10.
Since 2014, Cooper has owned the head-to-head with Ryle. They’ve won 23 of 25 matchups, three of those coming in district title games.
“We’re gonna go back to work,” Dorning said. “My coaching staff did a phenomenal job of putting a plan together tonight and we’ll do the same for Friday night. We’re facing a phenomenal team, obviously a phenomenal coach, but I believe in my staff to put a plan together and my kids to go out and execute.”
PHOTOS: Ryle-Conner slideshow, provided by Charles Bolton
RYLE — 25-12-17-20 — 74
CONNER — 16-12-11-20 — 59
Scoring
Ryle (74) — Lorms 27, Coppola 15, DeGroff 12, Davis 9, Smith 9, Verax 2
Conner (59) — Louden 19, Huff 14, L. Warner 10, Bushman 7, Abousaleh 6, T. Warner 3
3-Pointers Made: Ryle 10, Conner
Free Throws: Ryle 14/25, Conner 6/10
Fouls: Ryle 12, Conner 21
Records: Ryle 16-11, Conner 18-10
Cooper 67, Boone County 20
It was a special night for the Jaguars in more ways than one.
For starters, they’re headed to their fourth straight district championship game. Then there’s coach Tim Sullivan who amassed his 300th career victory, 293 (seven with St. Patrick in Maysville during the 2003-04 season) of them with Cooper, starting the program from the ground up in 2008.
“It’s a sign of what’s come through our program,” Sullivan said. “There was about 12 of our alumni here and they came in the locker room after with us to celebrate a little bit. Those are the guys that put this program on that way.”
Then there’s Andy Johnson, who drained a 3-pointer in the first quarter for his 1,000th career point.
“Great relief for sure. Guys were joking with me that I wasn’t going to get it, so had to show them I could get it,” Johnson said.
Johnson is just the third Jaguar in program history to hit the mark, following alums Sean McNeil and Adam Kunkel.
“Pretty good company,” Johnson said.
As for the game itself, Cooper shot out to a 26-4 end of first quarter lead and took a 35-9 advantage into halftime. They held the Rebels scoreless in the third, getting the game to a running clock with 5:30 left in the frame and taking a 53-9 lead into the fourth.
“Some of the alumni that were here were actually freshman the first year of the program and we went like 2-27 that year,” Sullivan said. “Our first district tournament was here, won that against Heritage in overtime, so things kind of come full circle. So that was pretty cool.”
The Jaguars will vie for their ninth district title in program history on Friday.
Eleven Jaguars entered the scoring column, led by Johnson’s 18. Isaac Brown chipped in 11, Jaidan and Roman Combs added 10 points each.
Boone County was led by Elijah Burks with 12 points. The Rebels season comes to a close at 7-23, the first under Todd Humphrey. They’ll graduate five seniors on the roster.
BOONE COUNTY — 4-5-0-11 — 20
COOPER — 26-9-18-14 — 67
Scoring
Boone (20) — Burks 12, Camargo 3, Rossi 3, Souder 2
Cooper (67) — Johnson 18, Brown 11, J. Combs 10, R. Combs 10, Hampton 4, Sullivan 3, Hartman 3, Lutz 2, Stanton 2, Philpot 2, Czirr 2
3-Pointers Made: Boone 1, Cooper 5
Free Throws: Boone 5/7, Cooper 1/6
Fouls: Boone 8, Cooper 8
Records: Boone County 7-23, Cooper 19-5