Owensboro closed out their first district win of the season in dramatic fashion as they took down Apollo in a close 52-48 match. The Red Devils led for a majority of the match until the Eagles closed the gap and took the lead late in the 4th quarter. An intense three minutes of basketball followed, and Owensboro came out on top.
The fourth quarter started with OHS leading 42-33. AHS shut down Owensboro long enough to score a couple buckets that brought the gap to just 4 points. Dayshaun Sanders drove in to the basket and scored to take it to 45-39, but the Eagles weren’t done yet.
Luke Jarboe drove in and drew the and-1, but missed the free throw. Kobe Kelly got the rebound from the next possession and took it coast to coast to score a contested layup. Jarboe then scored the bucket to tie the game, but Owensboro center Keaton Hughes made a big block to stop AHS from taking the lead.
After Caiden Tutt sunk a free throw to put Apollo ahead 46-45, Sanders responded with a go-ahead three-pointer to take back the lead for OHS at 48-46. This was the only time the Red Devils lost the lead since their good start right out of the gate. Owensboro head coach Rod Drake said that the team is young, and it’s common for younger players to relax after a good start like that.
“When you play with young guys, when you get it easy early it gets kind of bad for them,” he said. “You get comfortable and that’s what happens when you get easy baskets. The guys got out of themselves I should say. So, I gave them a tough time to get them back into it.”
Kelly responded by driving to the basket to tie it up again at 48-48, however this would be the final bucket for the Eagles.
Landon Henning had a big block to stop the Red Devils from taking the lead, but they would go up anyways after OHS’ Michael Acton was sent to the line and made both free throws. Acton scored one more at the line to extend the Red Devils’ lead to 51-48. Hughes saved the two-point lead and the game with another block with only 10 seconds left on the clock. Hughes made his defensive presence known in the final quarter as Drake said he was slow to start the game, but altered a lot of shots later on.
“He played well,” he said. “He woke up in the second half. He was asleep in the first half. Then I thought he picked it up. He makes a difference in the game. He altered a lot of shots down the stretch.”
Acton knocked down one more free throw to end the game at 52-48.
Thanks to a couple of early three-pointers from Will Hume and Marcus Holden, Owensboro started the game off by gaining a 16-8 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Eagles outscored the Red Devils 13-10 in the second half to chip away at the lead. Apollo fell a bit further behind by the end of the third quarter at 42-33 due in part by two three-pointers from Hume and 5 points from Holden.
The two went on to lead the Red Devils in scoring with Holden scoring 14 points and Hume scoring 12. Sanders had 10 points on the night as well. Kelly led scoring for the Eagles with 13 points with Jarboe following close behind with 12 points.
