se7ens

@LLS10 called it. Cooper vs. Lloyd. Andy Johnson. EJ Walker. Jayden Humphrey and Anthony Blaackar also putting up big plays for the Juggernauts. Roman and Jaiden Combs, Isaac Brown and Chris Rodriguez rounding out the top five for Cooper. And of course, the coaching battle between Coach Sullivan and Coach Walker. This may be Coach Sullivan’s finale as the Jaguars’ head coach if they lose. It may also be Lloyd’s best chance for a regional title for the foreseeable future. Cooper won the first matchup 63-59 at Lloyd back on January 14th. Johnson had 30 for Cooper and Isaac Brown chipped in 10. The Jaguars went 23/30 from the free throw line. For Lloyd, Anthony Blaackar had 30 and EJ Walker had 10. They only shot 14 free throws, making 10. They went 1 for 4 from 3. Will Johnson repeat his performance from last time? Can the Jaguars contain Walker again? Will Blaackar or somebody else step up for Lloyd? This should be an epic finale to the 9th Region Tournament.

The perfect way for this tournament to conclude. Congrats to the Warriors of DCA.

And one of those was double overtime. That alone is unreal.

Tonight at 7 PM at Lincoln County, the 12th Region title will be decided. DCA has been at the top of the region all year long with Mercer County assembling what amounts to the second best body of work over the course of the season. This is the matchup the region deserves and one it didn’t see in the regular season. Seniors Hagan Preston and Trevor Ellis power the Titans while DCA has Titus Boyd and Geu Leek Ateny, not to mention Lual Ayiei. The interior game tonight should be some of the best inside play seen all year in the region. We also know that defensively neither team is prone to give up anything easy.

I don’t think their style of play allows them to do any differently in tournament play against quality competition. I expect one of two outcomes in the title game - DCA wins in a squeaker or Mercer wins by 10-15.

A tight game throughout, DCA pulls it off and has a date with Mercer County, winner goes to Rupp.

I as well think this is a CovCath win on the neutral floor. Though Andy Johnson may (and that’s a big may) be the best player on the floor, CovCath may have the next three. Big court, neutral arena with the Crazies, that environment is favorable to CovCath. Also, you have a very intriguing storyline with Coach Thelen’s first regional tournament and the fact that Sully’s Cooper squad was the last team Coach Ruthsatz squared off with. It might very well be a turning of the tables and CovCath may be the last team Coach Sullivan faces as a Jaguar.

The second semifinal Monday is a fresh matchup. These two teams haven’t met this year. DCA escaped a first round double overtime game with the pesky Briarjumpers of Somerset. Southwestern knocked off West Jessamine in a close one in regulation. Now these two teams square off, just two wins away from Rupp. DCA has long been the front runner in the region, smothering teams defensively and being offensively efficient as possible through Ateny and Boyd. Southwestern has been up and down this year but no doubt has the ability to compete here. They favor a pace much quicker than what DCA allows. If they can get this game into the sixities or above then DCA may be looking at their time running out.

Monday’s first semifinal features two teams that escaped double overtime thrillers in the first round. Mercer was victorious by a score of 55-43 in the first iteration of this game. That was at Mercer and Seth Farmer was the only Maroon with double figure points. I do not see Pulaski faring any better if that happens again. The Titans were led by Trevor Ellis with 24. Pulaski would be okay with the defensive outcome from last time out, but they need to be able to score in a larger number of ways. Relying on beating up Mercer inside alone won’t do it. Mercer, on the other hand, has to look at repeafing Ellis’ performance while also involving others as Hagan Preston was their only other double digit scorer last time out. This is sure to be a fun rematch and we can only hope this one also goes to double overtime.

The second semifinal Tuesday pits Lloyd vs. Newport as the Wildcats have yet another chance at ending the Juggs’ season. Earlier in the year on December 22nd, Lloyd beat Newport 59-52. The Wildcats did not yet have Yamil Rondon, the hero of yesterday’s quarterfinal win. EJ Walker had 17, Jayden Humphrey had 16 and Anthony Blackaar had 15 to power the Juggernaut offense. Both teams narrowly escaped first round upsets. There shouldn’t be any reason to believe this game won’t also be close. There is a ton of history here between these two teams, especially on NKU’s floor. This should be another very entertaining semifinal in the 9th.

The first semifinal of 3/11, the Cooper Jaguars take on Covington Catholic. This is a rematch of January 22nd when Cooper won at home 69-65 in overtime. Cash Harney had 27 for CovCath and Andy Johnson had 26 for Cooper. Yesterday, Cooper defeated Highlands and CovCath blew out Dixie. For Cooper to win, they have to not let both Harney and McGillis go off. They could manage one (like last time) but if this becomes a scoring fest with multiple Colonels racking up points, I don’t see Cooper keeping pace. On the other hand, CovCath must limit touches by Johnson as much as possible. As an offensive threat and disruptor there may be no player more versatile and well-rounded as Johnson and he showed that last time out against CovCath. It should be a fun and exciting rematch. I’m also sure the Sullivan faithful will continue to show out in full force and we know what the CovCath student section should bring.

The Raiders never gave up but could never get in front. Lloyd got up big a few times but Ryle kept thundering back. Raiders held them to 6 in the second quarter. Really fun evening of basketball at NKU.

Yamil Rondon hits the game winning 3 at the buzzer. Hats off to Holy Cross. It was a great game the whole way.

Tie game at 41 with 5 minutes left.

Oh wow. Me too. That’s well below what I expected.

@Brennan_Bucher will be for the Highlands Cooper game I would imagine. I think all broadcasts are audio only.

It’ll be rocking in that fourth quarter of the Cooper Highlands game.

I love that this region and tournament are getting this publicity. It's so deserved. Thrilled with how night one went. Lincoln and Wayne went out swinging. And though @Hillbilly He-Man may give me a hard time, I recognize what those Wayne County kids have endured and played through this year and the end result was pretty remarkable. Hats off to them. As for Lincoln, talk about a team that never backed down from a physically imposing challenge. What a year they had. They definitely exceeded expectations for a lot of folks, but that is pretty par for the course for Coach Jackson's teams. I hope we have just as much excitement tonight.

That’s really only possible when both teams are scoring at that slow of a pace I would imagine.

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the first two games of a regional tournament both go to double overtime.

I don’t believe I’ve seen a team lose by 17 in overtime.

What an awesome and fitting way to start the tournament.

Let us play something out for a moment - if it is Cooper versus Lloyd, is that the last game for the losing coach (at least at that school)? Obviously, on one side we have the Cooper drama. Then on the other we have a head coach whose son is about to play SEC basketball (pure speculation but he wouldn’t be the first high school coach to hang it up to watch their kid play college ball).

Can we enhance this to an overall discussion about Cooper athletics? They are as successful as any other school in the area in boys basketball, girls basketball and football but it seems that things are a little unstable in terms of the various "stakeholder" relationships out there - coaches, administrators, district, parents, athletes, etc...

There isn’t a team in the field that isn’t capable of beating the others. It’s an incredibly equal region when it comes to any given game. However, the body of work for the year says it’s DCA first, Mercer second, Lincoln and Pulaski next in a virtual tie, then everyone else. Heck, Wayne and Southwestern came from probably the most even district in the state. With that all said, there isn’t an outcome in the first round that would absolutely stun me. And to put another way how I feel about Mercer and Wayne: On their best nights, they might be equal. But Mercer has played to their best more nights than Wayne has throughout the year. So I certainly am not saying Mercer is a juggernaut, just that they have the second best body of work in the region.