By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports activities reporter
The two girls basketball groups that performed in the 9th Region event remaining final March have a rematch scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday when defending champion Cooper visits Notre Dame.
Both groups have a brand new head coach. Cooper is off to a 2-1 begin below Christian Pohaska and Notre Dame gained its first three video games with George Stoll in cost.
Cooper’s group chief as soon as once more is junior guard Haylee Noel, who was named most beneficial participant in final yr’s area event. Notre Dame has a first-year starter, Sarah Young, getting into the sport with team-high averages of 13 factors and 11.3 rebounds.
“Right away, I knew that she was going to be a good contributor for sure,” coach Stoll stated of Young, a 6-foot-1 heart who impressed the Pandas’ new coach throughout preseason follow.
“She does well on both ends (of the court). She’s a very good communicator on defense, too, and that doesn’t show up in the stat column.”
In a win over Holy Cross final week, Young had 17 factors, 14 rebounds and 4 blocked photographs. She was 8 of 9 from the sphere in that recreation and comes into the showdown with Cooper taking pictures 58.6 p.c (17 of 29) with 4 3-point objectives.
“It’s 100 percent my teammates,” Young stated of her success on offense. “They’re so good at driving and finding me it makes my job really easy. All I’ve got to do it get in the paint, they funnel the offense to me and I just have to hit the shots.”
Young stated she didn’t begin enjoying basketball till her freshman yr. In her first two seasons, she noticed motion in 30 varsity video games off the bench and had profession averages of two.6 factors and 1.9 rebounds. Her debut as a varsity starter has gone significantly better to this point.
“It’s fun, but all the credit goes to my team,” she stated. “They’re the ones that have helped and really gotten me to where I am now.”
Cooper has 4 starters coming back from final season’s 26-6 group that made it to the quarterfinals of the state event. The veterans embody senior Addyson Brissey and juniors Alivia Scott, Brinkli Rankin and Noel, who has team-high averages of 18.7 factors and seven.7 rebounds.
Cooper senior finishes races amongst nation’s prime runners
Paul Van Laningham proved that he’s one of many premier highschool cross nation runners in the United States by putting sixth and ninth in two nationwide championship meets through the month of December.
The Cooper senior completed sixth in the Brooks XC Championships on Saturday in San Diego. He accomplished that 5K course in 15:27, which was 17 seconds behind first-place finisher Jackson Spencer of Utah. The area included 50 runners from area qualifying meets throughout the nation.
One week earlier, Laningham got here in ninth amongst 100 area qualifiers on the Nike NXN Championships in Portland, Ore. His end time there was 15:17 and the profitable runner was Spencer in 15:01.
In Kentucky highschool cross nation meets this fall, Van Laningham recorded the state’s quickest time of the season (14:39.50). He later gained the Class 3A boys state meet in 15:01.12, eclipsing the course document (15:19.87) that he set the earlier yr.
The University of Wisconsin recruit is the primary Northern Kentucky cross nation runner to win the Class 3A boys state title twice.
Villa Madonna retires record-holder’s basketball jersey
The Villa Madonna boys basketball group retired the No. 32 jersey worn by 2024 graduate Henry Thole throughout Monday’s recreation towards Bellevue.
Thole is the group’s all-time chief in rebounds (1,041) and ranks second in factors scored (1,571). He additionally set the Vikings’ single-game scoring document with 50 factors.
In his senior season, the 6-foot-7 heart averaged 17.8 factors, 15.4 rebounds and shot 52.2 p.c from the sphere. He was named Division III Player of the Year by native coaches.
Thole is now in his second season with the Xavier University males’s basketball group as a walk-on.