BluegrassPreps.com 9th Region Tournament Review and Finals Preview

**B-Ball-fan** · March 7, 2022

BluegrassPreps.com 9th Region Tournament Review and Finals Preview

The 9th Region Tournament Finals are all set for Tuesday night at 7:00 at the BB&T arena on the campus of NKU.

The 34th District Champs: The Dixie Heights Colonels (22-6) will face off with the 35th District Champs: The Covington Catholic Colonels (27-4)

Winner will advance to the Kentucky Boys Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, March 16-19 and will face the champs of the 16th Region: Very possibly the Ashland Blazer Tomcats (24-5).

How did we get here?

The 9th Region Tournament is comprised of 8 teams; the champs and runner-ups from Distrcts 33, 34, 35, & 36 where in the quarterfinals of the tournament, district champs will play the runner-up of another district while the runner-up of said district must be in the opposite bracket, and cannot play their own district champs again until the tourament finals if in the case that both advance that far. The drawing for the tourmament was held on Saturday morning, Feb 26th at Holmes High School the day after all of the district tournaments had been completed.

The quarterfinals matchups were as follows: (All games were played at the BB&T Arena on the campus of NKU)

36th District Champs - Highlands Bluebirds vs. 34th District Runner-ups - Lloyd Memoiral Juggernauts

35th District Champs - Covington Catholic Colonels vs. 33rd District Runner-ups - Cooper Jaguars

34th District Champs - Dixie Heights Colonels vs. 36th District Runner-ups - Newport Wildcats

33rd District Champs - Conner Cougars vs. 35th District Runner-ups - Holy Cross Indians

The Quarterfinal Games: - Saturday, March 5

The 9th Region Tournament kicked off with all four quarterfinals games being played on Saturday March 5th

Right out of the gate the fans at the BB&T Arena were treated to a thriller between the defending state champs, The Highlands Bluebirds vs. The Lloyd Memorial Juggrnauts. In the regualar season game between the two, the Lloyd upstarts emphatically took care of business at Highlands' home in Ft. Thomas with the biggest statement win of their fantastic season, winning 91-78. Everyone expected a very competitive game that could go either way, and wondered if this Lloyd team was for real, and could they do it again? If anyone doubted them before, there was no doubting them now. With a balanced scoring attack in a game that changed hands on multiple occasions, the Lloyd Juggernauts prevailed 75-64 to advance to the tournament semi-finals lead by the sharp shooting of previously injured Ryan Davis who ended the day with 18 points accompanined by double figure scoring from Jeremiah Israel, the Coach's son, freshman 6'7" E.J. Walker, and Garrett Vogelpohl, also with healthy scoring contributions from Zaire Monroe, and Teyon Neale who knocked down a couple of clutch 3's to help advance the Juggernaut's cause.

The 2nd game of the day saw the Number 1 team of the 9th Region, the Covington Catholic Colonels take on the runner-ups from District 33 The Cooper Jaguars coached by the highly respected Tim Sullivan who has been known to with his heavy defensive style of play, keep his team in the winning column, which he did 22 times this season with only 6 losses. This would be the only time this season that these two teams path's met, and while Covington Catholic is supremely a dominant team who tore their way throgh the 9th Region this season, many wondered if the Jags had what it took to have their number like no other team could. Right at the beginning of the game the Colonels would jump out to a 7-0 lead having most believe that it would be a long day for the Jags, but with their never say die attitude Cooper faught back hard always keeping within striking distance to ultimately have the score amazingly all netted up at 36 by the end of the 3rd quarter. It was game on, and the Colonels fans were beginning to sit nervously in their seats. The Colonels flexed their muscle in the 4th quarter outscoring the Jags 13-1 and winning 49-37. The Colonels laid down the law and would not be denied, but the Jags gave them the scare that no other 9th Region team this season could.

The 3rd game of the quarterfinals pitted the 34th District Champs, The Dixie Heights Colonels against the 36th District Runner-ups, the Newport Wildcats in a game where Newport tried their best to slow down the Red Colonels and contain them, but to no avail. Dixie, lead by Kiernan Geraci and Billy Wogenstahl with also a very talented supporting cast were just too strong as they took care of business, and getting the win 51-37, advancing to the semi-finals.

The nightcap game of the quarterfinals gave us the highly anticipated rematch of the Conner Cougars, and the Holy Cross Indians where in their regular season game the Cougars just squeaked by the Indians 71-69. Lead by Kentucky's high school scoring leader Jacob Meyer, and teammate Javier Ward, the Indians jumped out to a huge lead where Ward broke a regional tourney record connecting on 7 3's, and Meyer tied Scotty Draud's regional tourney record of 41 points. The game looked comfortably in hand for the Indians who had built a commanding 19 point lead, but the Cougars did not roll over, and faught back to ultimately tie the game at 67. The Indians got the late game spurt they needed to secure the game that they thought was their's all along, and winning 80-74.

The Semifinals - Sunday, March 6

Covington Catholic vs. Lloyd Memorial

Dixie Heights vs. Holy Cross

In the first game of the semifinals, here again we saw the Covignton Catholic Colonels go up against a team that they had not played in the regular season, the Lloyd Juggernauts who had just the day before beaten the defending state champs, the Highlands Bluebirds for the 2nd time this season. There were now many believers who thought that the Jugss could compete with the Colonels, and compete they did keeping things relitively close most of the 1st half, but the Colonels extended their lead to 7 just before the break. Something in my bones at half time told me that the Colonels would dominate the 3rd quarter to put this game out of reach, and they did just that starting the 3rd period on a 13-0 run putting them up by 20. Lloyd managed to cut it to 11 by the 4th quarter but no closer, having the Colonels win 71-52 and advancing to the 9th Region Tournament Finals.

In the other semifinal game Dixie took on Holy Cross in a game that stayed relitively close throughout, seeing Jacob Meyer once again reach 40 points, but Ward was shut down by the Cougars limiting his scoring, and for the Indians it was mostly a one man show versus the balanced team effort of the Dixie Heights Colonels lead by Kiernan Geraci scoring 25 points. The Indians kept things interesting until the final minute, but Dixie Heights got the win 65-57 advancing them to the 9th Region Tournament Finals to face the Covington Catholic Colonels.

Congratulations to all of the teams who made it to the 9th Region Tournament where 7 of the 8 teams were 20 game winners!

Good luck next season!

Once again:

The 9th Region Tournament Finals are all set for Tuesday night at 7:00 at the BB&T arena on the campus of NKU.

The 34th District Champs: The Dixie Heights Colonels (22-6) will face off with the 35th District Champs: The Covington Catholic Colonels (27-4)

Winner will advance to the Kentucky Boys Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, March 16-19 and will face the champs of the 16th Region: Very possibly the Ashland Blazer Tomcats (24-5).

Good luck to both teams!