Cooper may not go very deep down their bench, but the way the starters spread it around it may not matter.
The Jaguars are clicking on all cylinders right now, continuing their momentum into the 9th Region tournament with a 64-51 victory over Ryle on Friday night in the 33rd District championship played at Boone County High School.
Four of the starters hit double figures as the starting lineup combined to score all 64 points on the night.
“There’s something special in our locker room right now,” Jaguars coach Tim Sullivan said. “Anything can change it, but right now, our kids are closing out all the noise and all the outside distractions. There’s a lot of things that go on around the program and if you allow that noise to come in, it can tear you apart. Right now, I think our kids are really locked in, and they’re really connected, and that’s a big thing.”
Tournament MVP Andy Johnson led the way with 26 points.
“I just let the game come to me,” Johnson said. “Honestly the first couple of minutes were kind of rough, but we got where we wanted to be, hit some shots and played with a lot of energy. That’s what got us the win.”
Isaac Brown added 13, Roman and Jaidan Combs with 10 apiece.
PHOTO SLIDESHOW: Cooper-Ryle 33rd District championship (provided by Charles Bolton)
Cooper enters next week’s region tournament with an unblemished record in region play, winning all 12 games against region opponents to date.
Friday they flipped the game on its head pretty quickly. After trailing 8-6 midway through the first, they closed the frame on a 14-2 run to take a 20-10 lead into the second.
“I really think it’s our defense,” Brown said. “We all preach defense. We were struggling offensively and missed a few shots early. We just started sitting down and guarding. I feel like that started to be the difference. Forced a few turnovers, got a few run outs.”
RELATED: Ryle, Cooper advance to 33rd District championship
They continued to distance themselves from a Raiders team that was 10-2 in their last 12 games coming in, building their advantage to 19 by halftime at 35-16. The half was highlighted by a couple of dunks from sophomore Roman Combs and Isaac Brown while Johnson put out the full arsenal on offense with 14 first half points.
“Guys continue to buy in,” Johnson said. “There’s some stuff going on personally that a lot of people don’t know about this program. We want to do this for Coach Sully, he’s the best to ever do it and we’re going to keep going for him.”
Outside of Landon Lorms, the Raiders couldn’t get much going in the first half, Lorms had 14 of their 16 first half points.
“Part of that is on me,” Raiders coach Nick Dorning said. “We got to do a better job of getting guys involved and recognizing where guys are open. We’ve got to do a better job of cutting and spacing the floor a little bit better and and just taking care of the basketball.”
His ninth and 10th point of the half put him atop the record book in Ryle boys hoops history, he became the program’s all-time leading scorer, passing Justin Doelmann’s record of 1,503 career points.
“Landon is one of the best players I’ve ever coached and it’s it’s not just basketball related,” Dorning said. “Landon is a phenomenal young man. I know a lot of people watch him play basketball on the court and they see his passion and his desire. What a lot of people don’t know is how great of a young man Landon is off the court in school. He’s a caring young man. That passion we see in him, that love we see on the court is what drives him. There is no doubt Landon is one of the best basketball players in Ryle history.”
Ryle got within 12 in the third and were knocking at the door to get it closer, but Brown hit a 3-pointer at the volleyball line at the buzzer to stretch the advantage back to 15.
“I always shoot that shot in pregame,” Brown said. “I always shoot that shot so I’m ready when the time comes I’m going to let it fly.”
The Raiders got within 10 in the fourth, but were unable to close the gap anymore from there. Lorms led the way with 27 points, Jon DeGroff adding seven points. The two were named to the All-Tournament team.
They now enter the 9th Region tournament as a No. 2 seed looking at a matchup against either Lloyd Memorial, Covington Catholic or Newport.
“We feel like we have excellent players that can do multiple things,” Dorning said. “We feel like we defend well, we rebound well. The last couple months of the season, we’ve been sharing the ball really well playing great, efficient offense. So it’s on the coaching staff to make sure that we put a really good game plan in place to make sure that our kids are in position to win the basketball game.”
Johnson, Brown and Roman Combs were All-tourney selections for Cooper. They’ll enter the region tournament as a No. 1 seed with a first round matchup against either Dixie Heights, Holy Cross or Highlands. The Jaguars have made the region championship the past two seasons, coming up short to Newport in both contests.
“We never try to look in our rear view mirror, but you try to learn from it and you try to understand that you go through those experiences to get you to the next time,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been there. We’ve gotten there, now we have to figure out. It’s all about that 1-0 mentality and taking it one day at a time.”
The draw for the tournament is Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at Holmes High School. The St. Elizabeth Healthcare 9th Region tournament begins March 8 at NKU’s Truist Arena.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
COOPER 64, RYLE 51
RYLE — 10-6-15-20 — 51
COOPER — 20-15-11-18 — 64
Scoring
Ryle (51) — Lorms 27, DeGroff 7, Coppola 6, Davis 4, Nsuti 4, Smith 3
Cooper (64) — Johnson 26, Brown 13, R. Combs 10, J. Combs 10, Rodriguez 5
3-Pointers Made: Ryle 5, Cooper 3
Free Throws: Ryle 6/10, Cooper 11/18
Fouls: Ryle 16, Cooper 16
Records: Ryle 16-12, Cooper 20-5