COVINGTON – Jarron Cumberland had 36 points, including the last 2 with 3.2 seconds remaining, to lift Wilmington to a thrilling 57-55 win over Covington Catholic Friday night in a non-league game at the CC gym.
On Tuesday in the Bluegrass State, Cumberland was clearly a thoroughbred. He had 21 points in the second half. He finished with 7 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 3 steals and 2 assists.
Cameron Stewart had 8 for Wilmington, who improves to 8-0 with the win.
Covington Catholic was led by Andy Flood who had 15 points. The Colonels are 6-3 on the year.
“It was great high school basketball,” WHS coach Michael Noszka said after the game.”We want to play people like this. Scott (Ruthsatz, the Cov Cath coach) has his kids play hard, they compete and at the same time they play with class.”
Covington Catholic ended Wilmington’s 14-game season-opening win streak last season with a 68-65 win at Fred Summers Court last January. In that game, Flood led Cov Cath with 19 points. Cole Vonhandorf chipped in with 16.
This time around, action on the floor was plenty physical in the first half, but officials whistled just 12 personal fouls. The teams combined for 7 free throw attempts in a half where the score was tied 7 times.
The Colonels did their best to make sure they had a hand, or body, on Cumberland at all times. Still, the senior bound for Cincinnati had 15 of the 23 WHS points in the opening half. Two of those points came on a thunderous dunk, the result of a steal and breakaway.
Noszka was not happy with the Hurricane defensive effort on the glass as CovCath had 14 offensive rebounds – that led to 10 second chance points – in the first half alone. To compare, WHS had 11 total rebounds in the first half.
Cov Cath had the upper hand early, leading 13-8. But Wilmington surged into the lead 21-19 in the second quarter before the two teams entered the lockerroom tied at 23-23.
Cumberland had 15 at the break but had to work plenty hard for all of them.
In the third, the WHS defensive effort was much more energetic and effective. Cam Stewart’s bucket gave WHS a 32-26 lead at 5:10. The Hurricane maintained the margin through the end of the third, 44-39.
In the fourth, Vonhandorf helped rally the Colonels who tied the game at 50-50 with 3:42 to play on a basket by CJ Fredrick.
Cov Cath led 55-52 but Cumberland drained a left-wing 3 to tie it at the 1:51 mark. On the ensuing inbound, the Colonels turned the ball over to give WHS the final opportunity.
“Once we got the ball back after the turnover, we knew we wanted one shot and we knew we wanted Jarron with the ball,” Noszka said.
The WHS coach said it was up to Cumberland how to handle the final seconds.
“We teach kids how to play and then let them go play,” said Noszka. “Sometimes we overthink this coaching thing.”
Cov Cath finally fouled Cumberland with 3.2 seconds left and the WHS senior calmly hit both to make it 57-55.
Vonhandorf, who has interest from Marquette Noszka said, attempted a running 3-pointer as the buzzer sound but it was off the mark.
SUMMARY
Dec 22, 2015
@Covington Catholic High School
C 15.08.16.16…..55
W 15.08.21.13…..57
(55) COVINGTON CATHOLIC (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Vonhandorf 6-1-1-14 Flood 6-2-1-15 Mayer 1-0-4-6 Ruthsatz 5-0-0-10 Heppler 0-0-0-0 Fredrick 5-0-0-10 Massie 0-0-0-0 N. Lenhof 0-0-0-0 Ziegelmeyer 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 23-3-6-55
(57) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Stewart 4-0-0-8 Miller 1-0-0-2 Beaugard 2-1-0-5 Jar Cumberland 11-5-9-36 Wolary 2-0-0-4 Morris 0-0-0-0 Creditt 1-0-0-2 Mansfield 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 21-6-9-57
FIELD GOALS: CC 23-55 (Flood 6-12 Ruthsatz 5-8) W 21-44 (Cumberland 11-23 Stewart 4-6)
3 PT FIELD GOALS: CC 3-17 W 6-15 (Cumberland 5-8)
FREE THROWS: CC 6-11 (Mayer 4-4) W 9-10 (Cumberland 9-10)
REBOUNDS: CC-34 (Vonhandorf 7 Flood 6 Mayer 6) W-25 (Cumberland 7 Miller 5 Stewart 4 Beaugard 3 Mansfield 3)
ASSISTS: CC-11 W-9 (Stewart 2 Miller 2 Cumberland 2)
STEALS: CC-10 (Ruthsatz 4) W-12 (Stewart 4 Cumberland 3 Beaugard 2)
BLOCKED SHOTS: CC-1 W-6 (Cumberland 3 Mansfield 2)
TURNOVERS: CC-16 W-15
