Saturday, February 12, 2000
Simon Kenton keeps on winning
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDEPENDENCE — Simon Kenton won 26 games last season with fun-and-gun basketball, leading the state in 3-point shooting with a four-guard offense.
The only similarity this winter is the winning.
“We're totally opposite this year,” Pioneers coach Scott Humphrey said Friday, after his team beat visiting Scott 71-58. “We're physical.
“It's more of a grinding team. Nothing comes easy for us.”
Having graduated six of its top seven players from last season, Simon Kenton somehow stands 18-4. It has lost to just two teams since November. It has won at No.1 Newport Central Catholic. It owns the best record in Northern Kentucky.
Yet it ranks third in the Enquirer's coaches poll and fourth in the Ninth Region in both state computer ratings.
“We weren't respected early in the year,” junior guard Jordan Stowers said. “Some people didn't have us in the top 10 in Northern Kentucky.” (They were ninth in the preseason coaches poll.)
Not that this success is anything new. Simon Kenton is the only Northern Kentucky school with a state basketball title (1981), and it won the region as recently as 1995. It averaged 24 victories the past five seasons.
But Stowers, who averaged just five points a game last year as a point guard, was the only significant returnee.
“We worked and believed in the weight room,” Humphrey said. “It has paid off.”
Consider the 48-18 rebounding edge Friday. Simon's strength is, well, strength.
“It's embarrassing getting abused on the boards like that,” Scott coach Jeff Trame said.
Friday, Simon Kenton fell behind 5-0 but then scored seven baskets in a 3:12 span, a 15-2 run that gave it an eight-point lead. After the first 30 seconds of the second quarter, Scott would never again be closer than seven points.
Friday's hero — senior forward Brandon Coppage, who scored a career-high 21 points — has lately made this a recurring role. At Holy Cross, he made two free throws with no time on the clock to force overtime in a game his team would win. In a tie game against Bishop Brossart, he hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left.
“It's definitely a conscious thing, me trying to step up now,” he said. “This is it for my basketball career. My dream is to go to Rupp (Arena, for the state tournament).”
Junior forward Kevin Cristello (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Stowers (13 points, 12 rebounds) each had double-doubles Friday.
The Pioneers' four remaining regular-season games represent the toughest stretch run of any Northern Kentucky team.
They play 15th Region favorite South Floyd (21-4), the state's highest-scoring team (90.5 ppg), tonight in the Sweetheart Classic at Lexington Bryan Station. Next Friday, they play host to No.4 Highlands, against which they went 0-5 the past two seasons. Then they visit No.5 Holmes and play host to No.6 Campbell County (16-5).
“If nothing else, we'll be battle-tested when the postseason starts,” Humphrey said.
SCOTT (58) — Thompson 4 8 16, Stevenson 2 6 12, Morris 3 6 13, Lye 3 4 10, Kreinest 1 2 5, Grober 1 0 2. Totals: 14 26 58.
SIMON KENTON (71) — Coppage 7 4 21, Cristello 6 5 17, Stowers 4 5 13, Piper 4 1 9, Baker 3 0 7, Setters 1 0 2, Brock 0 1 1, Ballinger 0 1 1. Totals: 25 17 71.
Scott ....... 15 9 15 19—58
Simon Kenton ....... 20 13 15 23—71
3-point field goals: Sc—Stevenson 2, Morris, Kreinest; SK—Coppage 3, Baker. Records: Simon Kenton 18-4, Scott 14-9.
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