By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The showdown between the top two boys’ basketball teams in Northern Kentucky this season lived up to everyone’s expectations. The lead changed hands 12 times before top-ranked Covington Catholic edged Cooper, 55-52, in front of a sellout crowd on Wednesday at CovCath.
CovCath center Jake Walter, right, goes up for a slam dunk against Cooper defender Adam Kunkel in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game. (Photo by Jackson Sports Photography)
With 0:05 left on the clock, CovCath junior forward AJ Mayer was fouled as he scored on a drive to the basket and made the ensuing free throw to give the Colonels a three-point lead.
Cooper had a chance to tie the score when junior guard Braydon Runion launched a 3-point shot from the top of the arc, but the ball fell short of the rim as the final horn sounded.
“You’ve got to grind out these kinds of games,” CovCath coach Scott Ruthsatz said after the dramatic win. “I give our kids credit because they showed poise towards the end of the game and we made some big shots.”
CovCath closed the game with a 15-8 scoring run led by junior point guard Aiden Ruthsatz, the coach’s son. He scored seven points and got the assist on a key basket during his team’s big finish.
After Cooper took a 47-46 lead on a 3-pointer by Runion with less than three minutes left on the clock, Ruthsatz got the ball to his 7-foot-1 teammate Jake Walter for a rim-rattling slam dunk.
“That was huge,” Aiden Ruthsatz said. “That just inspired our whole team, got us all pumped up to finish the game off strong.”
CovCath opened up a 52-47 lead after the slam dunk on a basket and two free throws by Ruthsatz. But Cooper battled back to tie it, 52-52, before Mayer’s game-winning three-point play.
“The fact of the matter is (CovCath) made a couple more plays down the stretch than we did,” said Cooper coach coach Tim Sullivan. “But the passion and belief that our kids played with was out of this world. If we do that every game, we’ll be fine.”
Cooper has two starting players sidelined by injuries and CovCath has one, but that didn’t seem to diminish the effectiveness of either team during Wednesday’s game that attracted more than 1,500 boisterous fans.
The Colonels scored six points off turnovers in the final two minutes of the first quarter to take a 15-10 lead. Then the Jaguars opened the second quarter with a 9-2 run and limited the home team to just seven points in that period to go on top, 23-22, at halftime.
CovCath shot the ball much better in the second half when Ruthsatz scored 15 of his game-high 22 points. But Cooper managed to take a 44-40 lead midway through the fourth quarter on a field goal and free throw by senior point guard Dante Hendrix, who finished with 15 points.
That’s when CovCath launched its game-winning 15-8 run with the coach’s son leading the way.
“I’ve been in some big games before,” Aiden Ruthsatz said. “As a point guard, that’s what you’ve got to do, just take over, lead the team and take care of the ball.”
CovCath ended up shooting 51.3 percent (20 of 39) from the field compared to Cooper’s 43.6 percent (17 of 39). The Colonels also had a 29-18 rebounding advantage. The team leaders in that category were Mayer with 10 and Walter with six.
COOPER 10 13 13 16 – 52
COVCATH 15 7 11 22 – 55
COOPER (14-4): Hendrix 5 5 15, Kunkel 4 3 11, Ollier 1 0 3, Runion 4 3 11, Walters 1 2 5, Shidler 1 0 3, Wasser 1 0 2. Totals: 17 13 52.
COVCATH (16-4): VonHandorf 4 3 12, Mayer 3 4 10, Ruthsatz 8 2 22, Nowak 1 0 2, Thelen 1 0 2, Walter 3 1 7. Totals: 20 10 55.
Three-pointers: CC – Ruthsatz 4, VonHandorf. CO – Runion 2, Ollier, Walters, Shidler.
