XregCoach

Calvary Christian wins the Kentucky Christian Athletic Conference over rival Portland Christian (Louisville). Mason Rusch brought home the MVP, as expected.

Calvary captured their third straight Kentucky Christian Athletic Conference Championship, defeating Portland Christian out of Louisville. Jordyn Goodgames took home MVP honors with 18 points, 19 rebounds, and 4 assists in the championship game.

Plus like I said in my first post, while the Cougars are better than most realize especially offensively... the Brossart game was an outlier in the sense that... Calvary scored way way below their season average and was able to win the game. I would bet that if you told the Mustangs before the game "you're going to keep Calvary in the 40s," they probably would have liked their chances.

Couldn't have said it better. Top to bottom. I completely and totally understand that with such a spread out region its tough to see everything. And ranking 17 teams is really tough even if when you do see everything. And typically the Cougars aren't a team to give much attention to. And maybe Calvary gets bounced by Scott in the 2/3 matchup. But from what it sounds like... the Cougars really believe they can win that game. And that by itself is a very very big change.

Even if it was 99 points on 54 shots... still impressive.

Mustang is spot on his analysis. At some point people need to take the "Yeah, but he plays at a small school" tag off of Mason Rusch. This is a kid who had representatives from multiple top tier Region 10 teams asking him to come be with them. He's really that good. Also like Mustang said, the diii teams who have knocked off Calvary packed a tight zone, took good care of the ball, and sent multiple bodies at Rusch. The Cougars don't start anyone over 6'0. Also, they have shooters like Rusch and Cross Dugan, but perimeter shooting isn't really their MO. So they typically don't thrive in a slow, grind-it-out game. But if you let them get in transition and play a fast-paced up and down game where they can play in space... they're not an easy out. When they played at Scott a couple weeks, it was a 6 point game with two minutes left. Fouls and free throws ballooned the loss to 12-14, I think. But that was deceptive to how competitive they were. But what it came down to in the BB game, was they showed up defensively. Several coaches and players said it was the best defensive effort they've had -- maybe ever. 37th District is shaping up nicely.

Casey County reached 99 points on just 44 shots from the field. Yikes.

I know these are two of the top teams in the 12th... but did this go to triple overtime or something? Did either team miss a shot?!

I dont know why, but I saw this post and somehow read it: Beechwood 73 Covington Catholic 49 I was like UHHHHH. Nevermind, carry on.

The Junior Point Guard passed the 2k mark tonight off a 24 point performance at home vs Villa Madonna. It was a typical Rusch moment... pick pocketed a ball-handler, turned into a fast break layup. The home crowd went nuts. With a strong end to his Junior year and a strong Senior year, Mason could be looking at 3,000+ career. Very, very rare and impressive at a small school like CCS. Best of luck to #1 and the Cougars going forward!

The Junior PG is 23 points away from the 2,000 point mark as Calvary Christian hosts Villa Madonna tonight. And yes, he's just just a Junior...

Scott has really proven they're in the elite of Region 10. Very real contender to get to the Sweet16.

Just out of curiosity, why have Ludlow (11-9 overall; 9-2 in conference; and leading NKAC d3 conference) below Bellevue (6-15 overall; 5-3 in conferece) and Dayton (6-16 overall; 3-6 in conference)? I get that Dayton hung an L on Ludlow, but body of work seems to be quite different, especially against similar competition.

That seems a bit uncharacteristic for them. To find ways to win by 25 when you're not shooting well is impressive. They're a 35% team for the year, so I imagine 1-12 is an outlier...

Does HC have a legit shot at making a run here? I've seen them 3 times now and they seem like a very complete team without a ton of weaknesses.

I think in general that's correct. But I can tell you from knowing some people involved, Calvary was told to schedule games with the big three in the 37th District. The girls' coach advised against it but didn't fight it hard.

It looks like a 56pt difference. 95-39

This is spot on correct. Nothing complicated about it. Until there is a massive change in how the "small schools" in this district are able to pull in players, there is an annual death sentence by the districts semifinals and there's not much to do about it. I don't believe either Calvary or SG have anything that resemble "feeder programs." Sometimes it doesn't come down to just strategy to effort. But there's not much of a way around it. I don't seem how drawing seeds for this district help. Because like Mustang says, that would just create a skewed Regional tournament, which doesn't help anyone either. The only thing I don't understand is why one sport's seeds has to affect other sports. For example, if SG and CCS forego district games in the regular season for girls basketball, why should have have anything to do with baseball? Or volleyball or boys soccer?

But wouldn't the issue then be that Silver Grove was willing to take the 4th seed in all sports? Whereas Calvary wasn't? I know going into the game, the Calvary coach just wanted his kids to play hard and avoid yet another starter getting injured.

Per the KHSAA scoreboard

In fairness to Campbell Co, they did pull off their press earlier than usual. And with the ball with 30 seconds left they declined to take a shot to get to triple digits. Calvary was playing without 3 starters and now only has 5 high school players available in addition to 7-8th graders. And at small schools like that, it can make all the difference.

So it's an issue of player firepower? Not strategy or style.

For those who were at the game - Does Dixie look like they could get to the point where they challenge Ryle or Conner or Highlands later in the year? Or does this look like their ceiling right now? I've seen them a handful of times now and think they have some nice players. But not sure they're going to have the firepower or strategy to contend with the 9th's best. Thoughts?

Fun game to watch. St Henry has a solid team. HC just seems to be a bad matchup for them. HC had some sloppy play to let St H hang around. Probably should have won by 15+.

This is such a gut wrenching thing for a kid to go through. Prayers for healing... but also prayers for Coach Belcher for good leadership going forward.