In a battle for 9th Region’s best, CovCath has the answers and the shot-making at the finish for No. 1 Lloyd

By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter

The calendar – not to mention the thermometer – said January. But the crowd and the intensity, the pace and the competitiveness, the physicality and the noise, the big plays and the misplays – all said mid-March.

Fighting for No. 1 in the Ninth Region, Lloyd Memorial and Covington Catholic went for the knockout shots early and often, landing as many as they missed with their stars doing what they do best – starring.

In the end in a packed house in Park Hills Friday, CovCath’s homestanding Colonels had one more run in them than the visiting Juggernauts did. But barely. As in a 71-67 win after falling behind 10-2 in the first four minutes and then coming back with a 15-2 run of their own.

“If we get stops,” first-year CovCath coach and former player Jake Thelen said of the winning secret for his scrappy junior-dominated and under-sized team of mostly guard types that saw eight Colonels play 10 or more minutes.

“If we keep playing like that with our bench, it’s going to be harder and harder to beat us,” said Colonel junior Athens McGillis, whose team-high 23 points slightly exceeded his 22.8 average. Some 35 pounds heavier than he played at as a 130-pound starter his first two years at CovCath, the 6-foot McGillis can now play through contact as well as initiate it. And he can score inside and out.

Just the way Lloyd’s 6-8 EJ Walker, a South Carolina signee, did as the Jugg senior almost brought his team back, mixing three-pointers from the corner with two-hand power dunks over defenders after his team had fallen behind by 11 — 59-48 — with 4 ½ minutes left.

But in the end, two Colonels made the final difference. Senior Jake Stewart, a 6-5 shooter with no fear, fired in a trio of three-pointers – one to close out the third quarter and two in the fourth to give the Colonels that big lead.

And then in a flip-the-script moment, junior guard Cash Harney, CovCath’s star football quarterback, went to the line for a team that had missed 10 of its 13 free throws, and hit all six in the game’s final 27.2 seconds as Lloyd was forced to foul.

“Jake Stewart stepped up,” Thelen said. “He didn’t play the whole second half and then came in and banged in three threes.” So hot was Stewart, the final three came on a called play.

“I’m definitely more confident,” Stewart said. “Coach tells me to shoot it.” And the senior on a junior team did just that. “I love this team” Stewart said. As for coming in off the bench: “It’s not that hard.”

As for McGillis, his new physique is the result of “lots of hard work in the gym,” and listening to his new head coach, former UC assistant and recruiter Thelen. “Me and him have a great relationship,” says Thelen, who advised Athens on what he had to do to get colleges to notice him. “He changed his body.”

And then Harney stepped up and finished off his 14-point night by handling the pressure the way he does as the Colonels’ quarterback, to nail those six straight free throws. At the time Harney hit his free throws, CovCath and Lloyd had combined for a miserable eight of 26 from the line (Lloyd 5-13, CovCath 3-13).

“It was a sellout, a packed arena,” Thelen said of the pressure that contributed to the misfirings. “We made ‘em when it counted. We’ll make ‘em when it counts.”

As for Walker, who scored 22 of his game-high 30 points in the second half when he simply overpowered the Colonels who tried to overwhelm him with numbers as they attempted to keep the ball out of his hands, it wasn’t much use.

“An unbelievable talent from an unbelievable family,” said Thelen who “recruited him at Cincinnati” and was taking note of his Lloyd coach – Mike Walker, his father.

Although Mike Walker wasn’t as upbeat as Thelen after the game. “They fouled him every time,” a none-too-pleased Walker said of the multiple defenders on EJ in a game that at times seemed to be played faster and more physical than the officials could keep up with – on both ends of the court. “Although that wasn’t the reason we lost,” Walker said, looking at a sub-.500 night from the line and 15 turnovers to CovCath’s eight. “That’s how we beat ourselves.”

As to whether this game in front of this crowd and under this kind of pressure would be good for his 9-3 Juggs, Walker, noting that his team had played “nine games in 10 days” although the schedule says eight in 13 — answered with a question of his own. “Have you seen our schedule?”

It was a postgame theme for the coaches. “If there’s a harder schedule in the state – maybe Louisville St. X,” Thelen said of the state’s No. 1 team that Lloyd has already played. “We’re Covington Catholic, why wouldn’t we play a big-time schedule?”

And on this night as CovCath basketball celebrated the school’s 100-year anniversary – and basketball’s 80-year history here – with the return of more than 70 former basketball players, that heritage may have been the difference in this one.

“It’s one of the big things that drew me back here,” said Thelen, who had embarked on a successful career as a college assistant at programs like Georgia and UC.

And now the perennial top dog Colonels have a new challenger in Lloyd. “They’ve done a really nice job” with their program, Thelen said of the Juggs.

But this game, this atmosphere, may have made the difference for a 9-2 CovCath team in a battle for No. 1 that had Lloyd the choice of the AP voters over CovCath in the Ninth Region. “We took that personal,” McGillis said – as did the Colonel students
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For Walker, no big deal. “This game doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “We’re pretty (darn) good.”

To be continued in March.
        
SCORING SUMMARY

LLOYD 12 17 13 25—67
COCCATH 13 13 23 22—71

LLOYD (9-3): Golsby 2/2 2/2 0/0 0/0 4, Blaackar 2/6 2/6 0/0 0/4 4, Sebastian 3/15 2/12 1/3 3/4 10, EJ Walker 14/17 12/13 2/4 0/2 30, Humphrey 5/6 5/6 0/0 1/1 11, Bresser 2/3 1/1 1/2 0/0 5, Copeland 1/3 1/3 0/0 0/0 2, Lewis 0/0 0/0 0/0 1/2 1; Totals 29/52 25/43 4/9 5/13 67.
COVCATH (9-2) Home: McGillis 10/19 7/12 3/7 0/2 23, Gaiser 4/5 4/5 0/0 0/0 8, Harney 4/7 4/6 0/1 6/6 14, Stewart 3/4 0/0 3/4 0/1 9, Carroll 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0, Bradshaw 2/4 2/4 0/0 3/6 7, Stava 0/2 0/0 0/2 0/2 0, Kruer 0/2 0/0 0/2 0/2 0, Ruthsatz 5/5 5/5 0/0 0/0 10; Totals 28/48 22/32 6/16 9/19 71.