‘They wanted to do something special.’ Highlands wins school’s first Boys’ Sweet 16
The first boys’ high school basketball state championship in school history didn’t come as some flash-in-the-pan success overnight for the Highlands Bluebirds.
They didn’t wake up one morning with five dead-eye three-point shooters and a team that could spread the floor on offense and clog up the lane on defense with its height and length.
“One of my very good friends reminded me when we were struggling and going through some tough times: ‘We started from the bottom, and now we’re here,’ to quote Drake,” Highlands Coach Kevin Listerman said after his team broke a record for made threes in a state tournament and routed Elizabethtown 79-60 Saturday in the title game of the KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 presented by UK Healthcare Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine. “I don’t listen to a whole lot of Drake, but I listen to that one.”
When Listerman took over Highlands basketball in 2013, the Bluebirds hadn’t made it to the Boys’ Sweet 16 since 2001. They hadn’t had a winning season since 2009. And then with Listerman at the helm, that trend continued — for five years.
But even then, the players who would become the heart of this year’s team began to put in the work that brought them to Rupp Arena on a Saturday evening in April, Listerman said.
The first winning season under Listerman came in Sam Vinson’s sophomore year, 20-12. The next year, Highlands made the 9th Region title game and went 28-4.
And now, they’re here — 30-4 and state champions.
“We just committed to the process and these guys did it,” Listerman said. “And I go back to middle school — they committed themselves to turning this program around. They wanted to do something special. And they did.”
A record for threes
Sweet 16 MVP Vinson provided the primary driving threat, and his teammates cashed in on the kick outs, nailing six out of eight three-pointers in a decisive second quarter against Elizabethtown.
The Bluebirds’ last five makes of the first half were all three-pointers, three from Will Herald and one each from Luke Muller and Leyton Read as a 12-point lead stretched to 21 before the intermission.
“We hit some big shots early in the game, and we got a big lead,” said Vinson, who finished the game with 20 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and three blocks. “And after that, I mean, we had the lead, and we were just dictating the game. That’s just what we do — all season long — and that showed tonight in the game.”
Highlands shot 758 three-pointers during the regular season, 113 more than the next closest team, and it made an astonishing 44.1 percent of them. So, perhaps it’s not shocking that the Bluebirds broke the previous state record for threes made in a Sweet 16 after hitting 10 or more in three out of their four games. They finished with 38, five more than the previous record set by Louisville Trinity in 2012.
All five Highlands starters reached double figures in scoring — Herald, 17, Muller, 11, and Zach Barth and Oliver Harris each with 10.
While the offense gets deserved attention, Highlands’ defense and rebounding also proved a problem for their opponents. The Bluebirds scored 13 points off seven Elizabethtown turnovers in the first half and got six second-chance points as they held a 17-14 rebounding advantage at the break.
“We challenged our players this whole week about rebounding, and we did a great job in the first half to collect the misses,” Listerman said. “And then we did what we typically do, which is make that extra pass and knock down shots. And when we get rolling, we’re awfully difficult to handle.”
Elizabethtown Coach James Haire, who led the Panthers to the Sweet 16 title in 2000, said Highlands’ length and physicality bothered his team and made it tough to keep pace. Camden Williams led E-town with 17 points.
“We just didn’t handle things as well as I would have hoped … give all the credit to Highlands,” Haire said. “I don’t know how they lost a game.”
Battle-tested
Highlands emerged from the 9th Region, which has produced two state titles from Covington Catholic in the last decade (2014, 2018) and another from Holmes in 2009. St. Henry has won the last two small-school All “A” Classic state championships.
The Bluebirds entered the postseason believed to be the third-best team in the 9th behind Covington Catholic and St. Henry, who spent most of the year near the top of the rankings as Highlands stumbled in losses to the Crusaders, Colonels, Lexington Catholic and Beechwood in the first few weeks.
“The whole state knew whoever was going to come out of there had a good chance at a title,” senior Luke Muller said of the 9th. “That was us this year. … You’ve got to give credit to everyone in that region for pushing us and giving us tough games. That really helped us here in the state tournament.”
The state title game marked Highlands’ 21st straight win.
Vinson stands out
In his postgame comments, Listerman gave credit to everyone from Highlands’ athletics trainers to their custodians, but he saved some praise, too, for Vinson, who he feels should win Mr. Basketball, the state’s highest individual honor for a senior.
Votes have already been cast for a scheduled announcement later this month, but Vinson, a Northern Kentucky commit, would have made a compelling case with his Sweet 16 performance, averaging 23.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.5 blocks in the tournament.
“He does it in so many ways,” Listerman said. “He does it scoring. He does it rebounding. He does it with assists. And he’s so humble about it. He’s about his teammates. When they get rolling, he finds them.”
Listerman played at Northern Kentucky himself after a high school career at Covington Catholic where his father, Mike, was an assistant coach in the 1990s under Dan Tieman. As a player, Listerman reached the Sweet 16 once. After Saturday’s win, Listerman spoke of how special it is as a coach to not only reach the Sweet 16, but to see his players win it.
“Growing up as a Kentucky kid and having played — I told these kids I played 39.3 seconds in the state tournament when I was a freshman,” Listerman said. “And to be able to come back as a coach and have them have this unbelievable experience, and to get to sit back and just watch it is absolutely amazing and humbling.
“And, you know, I’m so blessed. I couldn’t be more happy for this group of kids.”
All-tournament team
Jerone Morton, Clark County; Jacobi Huddleston, Bowling Green; Luke Sheperson, Boyle County; Noah Dumas, McCracken County; Chaunte Marrero and Maker Bar, Ballard; Cole Villers and Colin Porter, Ashland Blazer; Alandre Murphy, Kam Sherrard and Jaquias Franklin, Elizabethtown; Zachary Barth, Luke Muller and Sam Vinson (MVP), Highlands.
Highlights
This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 5:58 AM.
