By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Some things you don’t often see. Like a player shooting 23 free throws in a game.
Highlands’ Seth Ryan takes the ball strong to the rim against NewCath. (Photo by Dale Dawn)
“I shot 21 once,” said Highlands’ Nathan Vinson, but this was a career-high on the way to 28 points to lead his Highlands Bluebirds to a powerful 81-61 win over rival Newport Central Catholic in a 36th District semifinal Wednesday in Ft. Thomas.
Highlands moves on to both the Ninth Region tournament next week and a Friday showdown with Newport, a 79-42 winner over Bellevue, in the first Wednesday semifinal game.
One other thing you don’t often see: a freshman five-game starter setting the physical tone for his team the way Vincent Listerman, son of Coach Kevin Listerman, did with his physical defense, his ball-hawking steals, his ability to reach around and bat balls away from Thoroughbred dribblers and shut down whoever had the hot hand. “It’s mostly just instinct,” said Vincent, who’s not quite 5-foot-11 but with long arms, plays taller.
“A lot of thoughts were going through my head,” Vincent admitted of the job he had stepping up in a loud, packed, hot and sweaty gym in an elimination game. Lose and the season’s over.
Two things helped him. “The game started and I got into the flow,” Vincent said. “And I got a lot of that out of my dad the way he played defense at Northern.”
Played it well enough to take the Norse to a pair of NCAA Division II championship games. Had he seen films of his dad in action?
Highland’s Will Herald goes with his left hand inside. (Photo by Dale Dawn)
“Oh yeah,” Vincent said, “back in the day.”
“But he’s seen a lot more film of Sam Vinson,” Kevin Listerman chimed in, referring to the star who took Highlands to a state title two years ago – and is now a sophomore starter at NKU.
Which brings this full circle to Nathan Vinson, Sam’s younger brother, a junior lefty whose power drives to the basket got him to the line time and again. So successful were Vinson, Seth Ryan (22 points) and Will Herald (15) with this game plan, the more aggressive Bluebirds managed to convert 38 free throws to NewCath’s 12.
“I don’t think we took five jump shots,” Kevin Listerman said.
That was the game plan, the coach said. With NewCath challenging the dribbler, “We can attack the rim and we stayed with it . . . We try to play to the strength of our guys.”
“Get off two feet and finish,” Vinson said of the strategy that allowed the Birds a 20-1 edge in made free throws midway through the third quarter although it will hardly placate NewCath fans who were keeping track of the disparity.
But don’t forget the defense that Vincent Listerman was keying. He opened on NewCath’s leading scorer, Coby Kramer, then in the second half switched to Ian Mann, who had fired in 17 first-half points. Neither got any good looks off him while other defenders helped out with Kramer.
NewCath’s JJ Luhn finds a land to the basket between two Bluebirds. (Photo by Dale Dawn)
It was a far cry from that 86-52 crushing loss to Conner here a month ago. “We try to learn from that,” Kevin Listerman said of his teams’ attacking game on both offense and defense.
“Conner didn’t miss a shot,” Vinson said of that loss — and learning lesson. The idea here was not to give NewCath’s shooters the time and space to load up and fire away.
“We made them play to our pace,” Vinson said, “faster than they wanted to play.”
The game was pretty much decided right after halftime as Highlands opened with an 8-0 run, extending a 38-34 halftime edge to double digits at 46-34. Using some of the Highlands’ game plan and taking the ball to the basket, NewCath battled back and closed it to within nine points on four occasions but that’s as close as the Breds came.
Mann led NewCath with those 17 first-half points. JJ Luhn added 14 for the Thoroughbreds, who finished 11-19 with two wins in their final 12 games.
For Highlands, which takes a 23-8 record into the district finals against Newport, that’s the 11th win in the last 14 games.
BOX SCORE
NEWCATH 16 18 13 14—61
HIGHLANDS 19 19 22 21—81
NewCath’s leading scorer Ian Mann runs into a Bluebird defensive denial zone. (Photo by Dale Dawn)
NEWCATH (11-19): Collopy 0, Luhn 14, Eaglin 7, Iles 8, Barth 0, Runyon 6, Simon 2, Mann 17, Rouse 4, Kramer 3, TOTAL: 61.
HIGHLANDS (23-8): Ryan 22, Rickard 0, Listerman 6, Hicks 0, Class 1, DeSilva 0, Herald 15, Vinson 28, Benke 9, TOTAL: 81.
NEWPORT 79, BELLEVUE 42
With the top-seeded Wildcats having no trouble against a Bellevue team they’d beaten 80-31 in the regular season, the 24-win Wildcats will face the 23-win Bluebirds in the 36th District championship Friday. When these two played Jan. 7 at Highlands, Newport won 57-50.
In Wednesday’s first game, Newport jumped out to a 19-0 lead and 24-0 with 6:08 left in the first half before Bellevue scored on a three from freshman Tristan Woodyard. It was 41-18 at halftime and 50-25 midway through the third period.
Jim Hicks’ Bellevue team finishes with a 13-16 record and a 64-49 win in the District Monday over a Dayton team that had beaten Bellevue, 68-59, in the regular season.
I had the opportunity to watch both games last night. My kid doesn’t go to NHS, but your write up of both match-ups in the 36th district is a little lopsided. Equal coverage of both would have been nice.
The hustle and effort the kids from NHS put forth in their win is deserving of more that a 3 paragraphs footnote in your article. It may have been nice to also see some scoring recognition of their players well.