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Ashland coach Jason Mays shouts a play to his team against Calloway County during the Ashland Invitational Tournament on Dec. 28.

Ashland’s Zander Carter races down the floor as teammate Ethan Sellars and Highlands’s William Herald follow behind on Jan. 8. 

Ashland's Ryan Atkins puts up a shot against East Carter during the 16th Region Tournament quarterfinals on March 3. 

Ashland coach Jason Mays shouts a play to his team against Calloway County during the Ashland Invitational Tournament on Dec. 28.

Ashland’s Zander Carter races down the floor as teammate Ethan Sellars and Highlands’s William Herald follow behind on Jan. 8. 

Ashland's Ryan Atkins puts up a shot against East Carter during the 16th Region Tournament quarterfinals on March 3. 

What’s another big challenge?

Ashland coach Jason Mays looks at Covington Catholic and thinks about tonight, and he ponders more than the 28-4 juggernaut that the Tomcats drew in the first round of the Sweet Sixteen.

Mays called them “calluses,” what Ashland has experienced over the last three years to be prepared to play one of the top programs in the commonwealth on the state’s biggest stage in an elimination game.

Those calluses include the injuries and subsequent missed games over four years that stole any reasonable shot of Cole Villers becoming Ashland’s all-time leading scorer and sidelined Colin Porter for a spell too. For that matter, only two Tomcats have played in every game this year.

The scars count three years’ worth of the defending region champion Tomcats taking every opponent’s best shot, culminating in Russell finally ending Ashland’s 43-game win streak against 16th Region competition in the third-to-last game of the regular season.

For Mays, it dates back to the Tomcats missing out on the treat of taking an undefeated record to Rupp Arena in 2020 to try to finish off the first spotless mark in this region in nine decades with a state title. COVID-19 reared its ugly head before that opportunity materialized.

“I don’t care what anybody says,” Mays said, “everybody experienced disappointment, but no team experienced it like we did two years ago.”

The weight combined to make a fourth straight region tournament title that seemed inevitable entering the year suddenly less so when time got small.

The Red Devils knocked off Ashland and celebrated accordingly and deservingly. Bath County took the Tomcats to the brink in the region tournament semifinals, the latest in a series of close calls for Ashland in Morehead. Boyd County hung close with the Tomcats deep into the second half in the region championship game.

None could take Ashland to the mat in a game that truly mattered.

“We’ve had to go into games this year looking down at the bench and seeing Cole and Colin sitting down there in sweats, and as a coach, you’re thinking, ‘How are we gonna pull this one off?’” Mays said. “And we’ve found ways. We’ve also come up short. I think lessons are learned from both those, the ones we won and then the ones we lost.”

One of the ones Ashland won, of course, was a previous encounter with Covington Catholic. The Tomcats hosted the Colonels on Jan. 29 and beat them, 71-60. Ashland sent Covington Catholic back up the AA Highway with one of just four defeats the Colonels have incurred this season, and the one with the widest margin to date.

Covington Catholic hasn’t lost since, establishing itself as a legitimate contender for a state crown. That, and the Colonels’ excellent point guard, Evan Ipsaro, averaging 21.7 points per game, and the size of their frontcourt — Mitchell Rylee (listed at 6-foot-8) and Chandler Starks (6-foot-6), with a side of Colin Detzel (6-foot-6) off the bench.

Ashland counters with Ryan Atkins, listed at 6-foot-2, and some help from Villers (6-foot-2) and Zander Carter (6-foot-2).

Mays credited Atkins with changing the first encounter with the Colonels with his toughness inside. Atkins understands the assignment and the stakes of the rematch.

“You have to have the mentality, you gotta have more grit than him,” Atkins said. “It’s gonna be tough, we’re gonna be banged up and it’s gonna be a bruising game, but it is what it is. We want to get that ring, baby.”

Covington Catholic won its fourth Ninth Region Tournament in five years and has established itself as a state power under coach Scott Ruthsatz, but none of the Colonels who will play tonight have ever taken the Rupp Arena floor. They, too, were sidelined by the coronavirus in 2020 and lost in the region tournament quarterfinals last year.

Even so, even if they haven’t personally lived it, this year’s Colonels understand the target Ashland has borne this year.

“It’s a big kind of relief to get through,” Ruthsatz said, “because, CovCath, we’re expected to win every year, from the coaches on down, our administration at school. We’re expected to win.”

And the Colonels did, but they had to pull away from a four-point fourth-quarter lead on Dixie Heights in the region tournament final to finally finish off a 59-43 victory.

“And now it’s like, guys, we just gotta go play,” Ruthsatz said. “We got one goal down; now our next goal is to win a state championship, and it’s game by game.”

Which mirrors the Tomcats’ mentality to get back to Rupp and to try to finish it off — viewing the difficult experiences of getting there as not only a prerequisite or a toll, but a catalyst.

“It’s been layers of adversity that we’ve faced that I think has callused them to look challenging situations square in the eye and just focus on the process of doing their job rather than getting anxious about whether you’re gonna succeed or not,” Mays said. “They just focus on doing their job.”

Reach ZACK KLEMME at zklemme@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2658. Follow @zklemmeADI on Twitter.

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