Dominant could be the easy word to choose.
How about annihilation?
That’s exactly what Covington Catholic did to 9th Region opponents this season. It didn’t stop on Tuesday night either, routing Ryle 82-51 on their way to a region title at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena.
It was a typical region contest for the Colonels as they attacked with brute force and were met with little resistance. They improved to 15-0 against region opponents this season, winning by an average of 36.8 points per game in those contests. The closest game was a 72-54 victory over Dixie Heights on Feb. 13.
Tuesday night has been brewing for quite some time now. After coming up short in the region semifinals to Cooper the past three seasons and a talented senior class of four experiencing those shortcomings, the Colonels were on a mission since March 11, 2025 (59-54 loss to Cooper in semis).
“They come out every day in practice and they play unbelievably hard,” Colonels coach Jake Thelen said. “They come in these games, they play unbelievably hard. They’re so locked in and dialed into doing it for each other. I think that’s what makes this team special.”
Chemistry wasn’t an issue. Athens McGillis calls them his best friends, playing alongside Cash Harney and Donovan Bradshaw for years. Then Braeden Myrick entered the mix, a transfer from Mason County that provided deadly shooting to an already talented offensive bunch. Teegan Stava and Dylan Gaiser add the intangibles.
“They love each other. They’ve played with each other their whole life, so for them to experience moments like this is really special for them,” Thelen said. “All of our guys are so unselfish. Every single person. We’ve had eight kids on our team score 20 points in a high school game. So for them to just do what they do, it’s been really cool.”
In two years, Thelen’s reeled his team to buy in on the defensive end the most as the way they create turnovers ends up in breakaway layups the other way.
PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton
The defense forced Ryle into an uncharacteristic game for their standards. They committed 15 turnovers, 10 of them in the first half and allowed 82 points, their second most in a season when they allowed Covington Catholic to score 88 on Feb. 6.
“I think the biggest thing is a lot of times if you’re playing a more physical team, you try to beat them with speed. If you’re playing a quicker team, you try to beat them with physicality,” Raiders coach Nick Dorning said. “That’s a team that has both, so when you’re both quick and have great team speed and great team physicality, they have the ability to to speed you up and then when you get downhill, they have the physicality to keep guys in front and protect the rim. That makes it really hard, really difficult to do what you want to do.”
Early foul trouble didn’t help either, as floor general Anthony Coppola picked up two early fouls.
The Colonels pounced at the opportunity early, jumping out to a 18-11 lead before leading 23-16 by the end of the first. Then came one of those patented Colonel spurts.
They opened up the second on a 12-2 run and in a blink of an eye it was suddenly 35-18. The Raiders were able to keep it around that deficit the rest of the half, trailing 45-29.
Four minutes into the second half the next blue wave came, a 12-5 spurt and a 66-42 lead by the end of three. The only question left was by how much. They’d claim a 31-point victory and their seventh region title since 2014 and 15th in program history.
Here’s five takeaways from the game:
Harney MVP
Cash Harney earned MVP honors, scoring 53 points in the three games to go with 11 rebounds, 14 assists and seven steals. He shot 22-of-38 from the field and 6-of-14 from the 3-point line.
“Coach Thelen said last week we haven’t won anything. Us seniors haven’t won anything these past four years,” Harney said. “And that really lit a fire in me. Lit a fire in our guys. I feel like we showed that with these three games we played. And I feel like we’re scary and we’re coming in hot.”
While his scoring may have taken a decline this season due to the addition of Myrick, Thelen said this was Harney’s most productive season of his high school career.
“People have thought he hasn’t had a great year because he’s only averaging 10 points a game. He’s had the best year he’s ever had playing basketball,” Thelen said. “He defends, he rebounds, he makes the right play, he’s passing the ball, he’s not taking bad shots. So for him to get this moment is really awesome for him.”
This also marks Harney’s fourth region championship in total in two sports. He won one in football when he was a freshman at Beechwood, won another one as a sophomore in football at Covington Catholic, claimed one his junior year in football as they shocked Boyle County and now winning one on the basketball court.
“It’s God, really. He put me in this position. He put me here at CovCath,” Harney said. “I’m just blessed and I’m grateful for this opportunity.”
McGillis clears 2k, second on all-time scoring list
Athens McGillis came into Tuesday night’s game with 1,980 points, tied for third all-time on the Covington Catholic scoring list with Nick Ruthsatz. He needed just eight points to pass Evan Ipsaro and finished with 22, giving him 2,002 for his career, only the second Colonel to ever hit the 2k mark.
“Feels special,” McGillis said. “It’s something I’ve been pushing towards. Hitting it when winning a region finally and the 2k definitely puts a cherry on top.”
Cole VanHandorf’s 2,244 pts is tops in program history.
Bradshaw was everywhere
A key matchup in the region championship was Donovan Bradshaw vs Grace Nsuti. Nsuti provides a physical presence for the Raiders and one that Bradshaw called the best post player he’s gone up against in the region.
Bradshaw matched Nsuti’s physicality, scoring 21 points to go with 12 rebounds, eight of them coming on the offensive end. He also added five steals and two blocked shots. Nsuti finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.
“I wanted to establish my will in the paint. We were struggling rebounding at the end of the regular season. Rebounding tonight would help us get to where we want,” Bradshaw said. “Coach said before the game, you guys want to go to Rupp Arena you have to rebound. I took that personally. I went out there and got rebounds and just did my job.”
St. X next in first round
You could label it the state championship in the first round with where the two are ranked. With No. 1 Madison Central going down in the 11th Region semifinals, Covington Catholic was No. 2 in the final Elite 16 statewide media poll, St. Xavier No. 3.
The two will now face off in the first round of the state tournament on Wednesday, March 18, at 11 a.m. It kicks off the state tournament next week and the eventual champion could be the winner of that one.
Raider turnaround
Ryle was sitting at 4-6 on Dec. 29 after a 55-50 loss to Russell, their second consecutive loss and searching for answers.
“We were looking around and we heard people talking and we saw things on social media and people buried our team. They thought that we had lost too much from last year,” Dorning said. “I was kind of emotional, just working through some things, trying to figure it out. My wife looked at me and she said, ‘Nick, you have great kids. Keep working.’ And that just triggered something in me to go back and share that very short message with my kids. In life, you’re going to face adversity and when you do, what do you do? Do you shut down? Do you quit? It would have been easy to do, but they didn’t, they kept working, they rattled off 10 straight and 19 of 21 games. Super proud of them for that.”
Ryle’s season was historic, their second best in program history. They won a district title for the first time since 2014, the 23 wins in a season were second most to the 2001-02 team, who had 24 and which happened to be the last Raiders team to make a region championship game.
They’ll graduate five seniors, two of them starters in Coppola and AJ Davis with Nathan Verax, Sawyer Haley and Jerry Draine all set to graduate. But there’s definitely optimism in Union with Holden Smith back, as well as Nsuti and Blake Broz and key reserve Nathan Colemire, a solid core to start with headed into next season.
COLONELS 82, RAIDERS 51
RYLE — 16-13-13-9 — 51
COV CATH — 23-22-21-16 — 82
Scoring
Ryle (51) — Smith 18, Davis 10, Nsuti 10, Coppola 8, Colemire 5
CovCath (82) — McGillis 22, Bradshaw 21, Harney 15, Stava 12, Myrick 9, Gaiser 3
Game Stats
Field Goals: Ryle 21/51, CovCath 31/56
3-Pointers: Ryle 4/15, CovCath 8/19
Free Throws: Ryle 5/12, CovCath 12/19
Rebounds: Ryle 27, CovCath 33
Assists: Ryle 7, CovCath 16
Turnovers: Ryle 15, CovCath 7
Steals: Ryle 4, CovCath 12
Blocked Shots: Ryle 4, CovCath 3
Fouls: Ryle 17, CovCath 12
Records: Ryle 23-9, Covington Catholic 31-2