CovCath’s explosiveness pushes them past Highlands

Scoring in bunches can certainly help deflate the opponent.

It’s something Covington Catholic excels in and they were able to do so on Friday night in Fort Thomas, taking down Highlands 88-66 in front of a packed house and standing room only gym.

The Colonels (17-1) put up points in bunches as four hit double figures led by Athens McGillis’ 28-point, 10 assist effort.

“You got four legit threats on the court to score the ball,” Colonels coach Jake Thelen said. “We have eight players on our team that have scored 20 in a varsity game at some point in their career. So, there’s a lot of weapons.”

Braeden Myrick got hot early and hit four 3-pointers in the first and finished with 25 points. His fourth triple of the first was six minutes in and got the Colonels off to a hot start at 23-14.

“It was very important,” Myrick said. Going from warm-ups, we could tell what type of environment it was. So we just came in and did what we had to do.”

Donovan Bradshaw manned the paint and hit his patented floater to the tune of 20 points while Cash Harney helped steady the offense with 11 points and eight assists.

PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton

“Donnie (Bradshaw) was awesome,” Thelen said. “He met the challenge tonight because Highlands does a really nice job inside. (Tayden) Lorenzen is a really good player, and (Nathan) Rickard a really good player. So we knew we needed to battle with them the night. And I think we did a really good job.”

Highlands (12-2) struggled to get stops as the Colonels hung 29 in the first and 52 by the half. CovCath hitting 10-of-19 three-pointers and 59% of their shots from the field certainly didn’t help the cause as the Bluebirds found themselves down 52-40 at the break.

“Guard the three,” Bluebirds coach Kevin Listerman said. “It’s plain and simple. The difference in the game is they hit 11 threes. We gave up a couple offensive rebounds and some loose balls, especially in the first half in some scramble situations. They pick it up, and they were all threes. Those are the possessions that we have to win in order to give ourselves a chance to win.”

The Colonels continued to pull away in the third, leading by as much as 19 at 68-49 after a Myrick three-pointer. After giving up 40 in the first half, the Colonels turned the defense up a notch as Highlands struggled to find their rhythm in the second half, Bradshaw playing a big factor in that with three blocked shots and six rebounds.

“It’s a big role, because I got to protect the rim,” Bradshaw said. “We’re not the biggest out there, but our guards definitely have heart. Some teams are low in size and they’re not that good. We’re low in size, but we just play with heart. It’s heart over height every night we play, and I just got to do my job, block shots and get rebounds.”

The Bluebirds were able to get within 14 on a couple of different occasions in the fourth quarter, but the Colonels final 8-0 spurt in about 30 seconds turned things from 80-65 to 88-65 with just a minute to play.

While CovCath continues to show its dominance in the region, Thelen still feels things can improve as they’re now a little over halfway through the season.

“I think our defense needs to continue to get better,” Thelen said. “There’s always things to improve as a coach and as a team, but the good thing about our players is they love being around each other. They love being in practice. They love going in the weight room and lifting with our strength coach and all of that stuff matters. Our trip to King of the Bluegrass, our trip to Florida, I think, has brought these guys closer because they’re all best friends.”

Highlands was led by Finn Bouldin’s 16-point performance, while Vinny Listerman and Owen Ebert tallied 11 points apiece. The Bluebirds struggled from deep, hitting just 5-of-23 three-point attempts, all the makes coming in the first half. It’s just their second loss of the season, now facing a stretch where they can continue to rattle off some victories, starting with Cooper on Wednesday in Fort Thomas.

“You got to guard them at the other end. That’s the part that we have to grow,” Listerman said. “We talked about in the locker room that this is a great measuring stick. We’re right in the middle of our season. And we played top five team in the state, felt we punched with them. We didn’t finish as well as I would have liked in terms of the end of the game, but we know where we have to grow. This is a learning thing for our guys, especially our bench guys that haven’t been through it and that’s the part that I’m really excited about.”

CovCath hits the floor again on Monday at the Cintas Center against St. Xavier (Ohio) at 5:15 p.m. It starts a stretch where three of their next four are against Ohio teams, also facing Archbishop McNicholas on Tuesday and Centerville on Janl. 24 with Trinity mixed in at home on Jan. 23.

COLONELS 88, BLUEBIRDS 66

COVINGTON CATHOLIC — 29-23-17-19 — 88

HIGHLANDS — 20-20-13-13 — 66

Scoring

CovCath (88) — McGillis 28, Myrick 25, Bradshaw 20, Harney 11, Stava 2, Gaiser 2

Highlands (66) — Bouldin 16, Ebert 11, Listerman 11, Rickard 9, Harris 7, Lorenzen 7, Shafer 5

Game Stats