Highlands 51 Covington Catholic 38 (NKY JV Tournament Finals)

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Congratulations to the Bluebirds, who led this one start to finish.

 

 

[bluebirdwatcher]

Congrats to the Birds!

[Runcible Owl]

🔵 Congratulations Highlands, well played. Better in every phase of the game tonight.

[True Blue]

Looks like you should not count the Birds out the next couple of years.

congrats Birds!

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

 

[Breds82]

Box score says a lot in this one. Was this a one off shooting perfoemance for CovCath? Did Highlands defense have that big of an effect on their shooting?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

1 hour ago, Breds82 said:

Box score says a lot in this one. Was this a one off shooting perfoemance for CovCath? Did Highlands defense have that big of an effect on their shooting?

Looking at the first game between the two, Highlands was 48.7% from the field and 15.4% from 3pt. Cov Cath was 37.2% from the field and 26.1% from 3pt. This time around Highlands was 48.7% from the field and 33.3% from 3pt, and Cov Cath was 25.0% from the field and 15.4% from 3pt.

The last several games for Cov Cath:
Feb 17 vs. Cooper - 48.6% from the field 46.7% from 3pt
Feb 12 vs. Lloyd - 42.6% from the field 15.8% from 3pt
Feb 06 vs. Holy Cross - 32.5% from the field 21.7% from 3pt
Feb 04 vs. Lloyd - 51.3% from the field 50.0% from 3pt
Feb 03 vs. Ryle - 48.6% from the field 35.7% from 3pt
Jan 30 vs. Campbell County - 52.0% from the field 27.3% from 3pt
Jan 27 vs. Ashland - 60.5% from the field 33.3% from 3pt
Jan 23 vs. Cooper - 44.4% from the field 30.8% from 3pt

[bigblue96]

Highlands has a nice younger group, but let’s not lose sight of the fact the two kids that have the ball in their hand prob 60-70% of the game at the varsity level for CCH are sophomores.  I do not believe Highlands has young varsity players who contribute at the level as the CCH sophomore class.  JV success does not equate to varsity success.   Throw in the potential of difference makers who transfer to CCH for the basketball program and I would not expect HHS to close the gap just because they won the 2024 Freshman and JV tournaments. 

[Hoopoop]

1 hour ago, bigblue96 said:

Highlands has a nice younger group, but let’s not lose sight of the fact the two kids that have the ball in their hand prob 60-70% of the game at the varsity level for CCH are sophomores.  I do not believe Highlands has young varsity players who contribute at the level as the CCH sophomore class.  JV success does not equate to varsity success.   Throw in the potential of difference makers who transfer to CCH for the basketball program and I would not expect HHS to close the gap just because they won the 2024 Freshman and JV tournaments. 

Let's not forget that the Birds currently start 2 sophomores on varsity too.  If you watched any of the younger guys play it's clear that both teams are loaded with quality guards and wings.  If the CCH faithful want to keep their edge they better be hoping for an impactful big to find his way to Covington this off-season.

[bigblue96]

1 hour ago, Hoopoop said:

Let's not forget that the Birds currently start 2 sophomores on varsity too.  If you watched any of the younger guys play it's clear that both teams are loaded with quality guards and wings.  If the CCH faithful want to keep their edge they better be hoping for an impactful big to find his way to Covington this off-season.

I don’t know much about the Highlands varsity squad this year other than their record indicates they are average at best.  Comparing sophomore contributors on an average team to sophomore leaders on a top team in the state seems like apples and oranges.  
 

I do agree that if a big man does not find its way to “Covington” the edge/gap will close.