Baseball Nut 24

I summed it up as best as I could. It's all about if offense or defense is more important (to coach) in a given game/matchup. The players you referenced are better on offense for sure. But we lose a lot defensively. I think I've seen or called all but maybe 3 games this year for our girls.

It's hard to continue to play 9-10 deep in the post season. I think a solid 7-8 is just right in most games/matchups. If coach Arlinghaus wants more offense he will use McCoy & Bottom more. If he is leaning more defense those two probably won't see as many minutes. Just the way he has been playing it and it has been working. I think this game comes down to the "post players" for Holy Cross. If Lewis & Hunt stay out of foul trouble I think HC has a great chance of winning. If not, I give the edge to Ryle. Should be a good one. Holy Cross Radio will be there to cover the game live if you can't make it to the arena in person. http://vcloud.blueframetech.com/holycross/widget?I'd=145

Conner relied on their 3-point shooting all year long in beating Cov Cath, Highlands, Holy Cross, etc..... Think I saw where they were 2-14 last night. That's pretty much sums up their night. I also did not think it was goal tending on that play. Newport/Lloyd will be a fun one to watch. I give the slight edge to Newport.

I was thinking about this one the way home from the arena last night.

Congratulations to Holy Cross for knocking out a very good Dixie team and advancing to play Ryle on Friday night. After a back and forth first half that saw the Colonels take a 24-23 lead into halftime the Indians exploded in the 2nd half. They started the 3rd quarter with a 10-0 run and never looked back limiting Dixie to only 16 2nd half points. Holy Cross was led by senior Najae Lewis with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Junior Miyah Winzie added 10 points and Senior Aleah Arlinghaus had 9. Senior Julia Hunt battled foul trouble all night and finished with 6 points and 8 rebounds. Best of luck to the Dixie seniors Samantha Berman and Ella Steczynski. Dixie 9 15 7 9 - 40 Holy Cross 15 8 15 18 - 56 Dixie (25-8) - Berman 9, Pelfrey 9, Steczynski 7, Elkins 6, Brooks 4, Buddenburg 3, Thelen 2. Holy Cross (26-7) - Lewis 15, Wimzie 10, A. Arlinghaus 9, Nelson 8, Williams 7, Hunt 6, Hayes 1.

Holy Cross Radio will be there tonight to cover the Holy Cross/Dixie game at 6:30 pm. Audio only. I might be wrong but I don't think ANY video is allowed for these games. http://vcloud.blueframetech.com/holycross/widget?I'd=145

Notre Dame was 20/29.

I can add to this from a Holy Cross perspective on radio. I thought Sophia Gibson (along with Kendra Collins) were the difference in the Pandas win over my Indians. Gibson was aggressive all night when she got her opportunities and made her free throws down the stretch when it counted. I was shocked that she didn't make the all-tournament team but I also did not see their first game (vs Beechwood) either. Holy Cross going 10/25 from the FT line was what cost them the 35th district title in my opinion. Best of luck to both teams on Sunday.

I have a lot of respect for Beechwood and head coach Erik Goetz. He will have his team ready to play. I think Holy Cross is primed to make a run but they will need to get past the Tigers tonight.

This will be the 7:30 game tonight at Covington Catholic. Holy Cross (21-7) will take on Beechwood (10-18) for a spot in Friday night's 35th district finals at 7:00 pm. If you can't make the game in person you can tune into all the live action on Holy Cross Radio starting approximately 7:15 pm. Holy Cross defeated Beechwood 87-60 back on February 3rd in Latonia. http://vcloud.blueframetech.com/holycross/widget?I'd=145

Great write up DD and thanks for all the work all year long. Well Done!

Any stats from the game?

Congrats to Coach Otte. Conner had a great year and he did a great job! The 9th region tournament is going to be a lot of fun.

5-Oh - Thought your post was basically spot on. Well done... Instride - You will not be able to change the opinion of certain "backers" in here over a Holy Cross game. You can generally tell based off the game thread comments throughout the season. You are making "some" valid points but you can tell the comments from the Holy Cross haters. The bottom line is that Holy Cross is still a darn good basketball team and has a great chance next week in the districts and regionals if they advance. They finish the season 21-7 playing a tough schedule. As far as St. Henry, I have a lot of respect for Coach Faust and the St. Henry kids. It would have been easy to fold up and lose by 30+ last night after they got down, but they didn't and battled back and won the game. Give them ALL the credit and I wish them well next week. Holy Cross will be just fine and maybe a wake up call that when they get teams down like that they need to keep the foot down. Only comment I will make about the refs is that 2 of the 3 were outstanding in my opinion. The other guy should move to the next level if he thinks he is that qualified. High school seems below him. There were a couple tough calls down the stretch but the refs did NOT cost Holy Cross this game, St. Henry won it! Best of luck to all the teams heading into next week!

Holy Cross (21-6) travels to Erlanger tonight to close out the regular season against St. Henry (12-12) at 7:30 pm. The Indians have won 5 in a row and 13 of their last 14 after beating Scott on Tuesday 93-77. The Crusaders come in off a loss at Newport 70-64. If you can't make the game in person you can listen live on Holy Cross Radio. http://vcloud.blueframetech.com/holycross/widget?I'd=145

I saw that. Interesting

Ouch

Final from Taylor Mill. Holy Cross wins their 5th game in a row and 14th in their last 15. Senior Jacob Meyer, fresh off his record-setting night on Saturday, led the way with 47 points. He was 17/29 (1/3 from 3) and 12/14 from the FT line. Senior Javier Ward had 29 points and Matt Dreas had 11 assists. HC 22 26 24 21 - 93 Scott 21 17 21 18 - 77

Great recap AWB well written. And I completely agree with your assessment for POY.

I didn't get a box score but to be fair they didn't shoot many last night. But I'm pretty sure they only hit one so the % had to be really low.

Lol. Thought I was missing something. OK sure!

Holy Cross might meet up again with Mercy?

Holy Cross was out-of-sync all night especially on the offensive end. It was not how they have been playing for most of the year and especially during their 10-game winning streak. Our defense was able to force almost 20 turnovers but were unable to convert those into any transition or easy buckets. Give Mercy credit coming into the Finn and beating us a little short-handed. Leah Macy is the real deal! Not sure about playing time or rotations last night but maybe it was more matchup-based I don't know. I know coach has done a great job all year. He will have them ready to go for post season next week. It was a very winnable game for sure but it was one loss. They sit 23-6 after last night. Hopefully they can get back on the winning side tomorrow at Simon Kenton to close out regular season play.

You are correct that the losses were by double-digits. They had trouble early in the year closing out games and playing 4 quarters. They led Cov Cath by 3 at halftime at Cov Cath and lost by 20. They were tied with Great Crossing with 5:00 to go, again on the road and lost by 15. They led Lyon County by 3 at half at the Lex Cath Tourney and lost by 16. They led CAL by 6 at halftime and lost by 15........The only really bad loss from "start to finish" was to Conner (who has beaten Cov Cath). But I agree on paper those losses don't look close but they if you watched the games they were much closer. Ranking them 19 instead of 12-15 isn't far off. So I agree with you on that too. Good discussion.

* Not saying RPI means "everything" but it can't mean nothing. It does measure to a certain extent strength of schedule which is at least part of your argument for not ranking them higher. Holy Cross 20-6 RPI .629 Conner 17-6 RPI .610 N Laurel 18-10 RPI .608 * But they have Reed Sheppard so the argument will be different I guess. I'm not saying who is better but if we are looking at how to rank teams we pick and choose what we want to look at depending on the teams. Maybe I'm wrong and missing something.