Saturday, February 19, 2000
Dixie defense stops CovCath
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Steve Purdon had to talk his best friend, Andy Schneider, into playing basketball this winter. Friday, Purdon paid a price.
The defense Schneider, Dixie Heights' senior forward, played on Purdon fueled a historic upset. Hey, what are friends for?
“I don't regret my advice in the least,” Purdon said, after sixth-ranked Dixie beat his No.2 Covington Catholic team 46-43 at Covington Catholic. “I'm glad to see my buddy doing well, even though tonight it came at my expense.”
Purdon, a senior guard who entered the game with a 20.8-point scoring average, had five points in the first 99 seconds Friday. Schneider held him to three points the rest of the night.
Dixie officials said it was their school's first victory over CovCath since the early 1980s. Combine that with football season, when Dixie beat CovCath for the first time in 23 years, and a new bunch of Colonels own bragging rights.
Schneider, the only Dixie player who also played football, scored all seven of his points Friday in the second half. With Dixie leading 44-41 with 10 seconds left, CovCath senior Brett Dietz missed a 3-pointer and Schneider grabbed the rebound. He then made both ends of a one-and-one to ice it.
“The football game (against CovCath) was great; that was one of the reasons I came to Dixie,” Schneider said. “But getting to guard my best friend on his Senior Night — this was special.”
After postgame showers, Schneider and Purdon reunited on the court, greeting each other with a high-five. They became friends in a fifth-grade summer league and remained close despite the intensity of their schools' Dixie Highway rivalry.
“My shoulder was kind of messed up after football, so I wasn't going to play, but Steve said I should,” Schneider said.
Schneider, a two-time Enquirer football all-star, didn't play basketball last season. Dixie coach Scott Draud said Schneider's friendship didn't figure into the decision to have him guard Purdon.
“This was by pure design,” Draud said. “Andy is a tremendous defender, and Purdon is a tremendous offensive player.”
Defense has been Dixie's forte all season. The Colonels (17-7) are allowing an average of 52.9 points a game, on pace to break the school record of 54.0 set in 1961.
Friday, they limited CovCath to one basket in the second quarter and just two in the fourth — one of them a meaningless score at the buzzer.
“We didn't execute,” CovCath coach Dan Tieman said. “But a lot of that is due to their aggressiveness on defense.”
CovCath (17-7) forged a 39-39 tie on a Jonathan Blazejewski put-back with 2:24 left, but Dixie senior guard Kyle Howard answered with a 3-pointer to restore the lead.
This upset came a week after Dixie beat Highlands for the first time in 18 years.
“To have it be senior year and beat teams like this is really special,” Howard said.
Dixie's five seniors have brought the program back from the scandal of two years ago, when seven players were dismissed from the team for drinking alcohol on a team trip. Dixie won just 11 games each of the past two seasons before Draud took over this year.
“The seniors have come a long way and been through a lot,” Draud said. “I'm so proud of how hard they've worked.”
DIXIE HEIGHTS (46) — Kampe 3 4 11, Howard 3 2 11, S.Bramlage 4 1 9, Schneider 1 4 7, J.Bramlage 2 0 4, Lonergan 1 0 2, Garrard 1 0 2. Totals: 15 11 46.
COVINGTON CATHOLIC (43) — Dietz 6 0 15, Purdon 2 3 8, Wachs 3 0 6, McQuade 1 2 5, Blazejewski 1 2 4, Finke 1 1 3, Baute 1 0 2. Totals: 15 8 43.
Dixie Heights ....... 17 9 11 9—46
Covington Catholic ....... 13 4 17 9—43
3-point field goals: DH—Howard 3, Armstrong, Schneider; CC—Dietz 3, Purdon, McQuade. Records: DH 17-7, CC 17-7.
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