For the fourth time this season, Owensboro made fairly easy work of cross-town rival Owensboro Catholic, this time coming away with the boys’ basketball 9th District Tournament championship in a 56-46 victory.
On a night when points were hard to come by for the Aces (17-11), the Red Devils (20-7) did not trail for the final three quarters.
After a back-and-forth start, Andrew Riney converted a free throw attempt for Catholic with 3:35 to play in the first quarter for a 9-8 advantage, and it was the Aces’ last lead of the night. Owensboro’s Amari Wales scored 9 in the second to put the Devils up for good.
The outburst came after Wales was forced to take a seat on the bench with 3:43 to play in the first quarter following his second foul. Owensboro head coach Rod Drake elected to re-insert his sophomore star into the game with his team leading by just 5 points. Wales points all came consecutively, and with only a single Catholic free throw during the run, Owensboro took an 11-point lead into halftime.
“Amari really separated us at the end of the first half,” Drake said. “He scored 9 straight points over the last few minutes and looked like the best player on the court. At the time of his 3-point jumper, he broke us out of a little bit of a slump and the rest of the guys really fed off of that.”
Drake continued on to commend his team on a season where he felt they were often overlooked.
“Tonight’s win was a total team effort,” Drake said. “I think we started the year as the 7th-ranked team in the 3rd Region, and I knew that’s not where we would be this time of the year. We got better, the guys worked hard and they are a great group to be around. If we keep doing what we’re doing, good things will happen.”
Though Owensboro Catholic was was again unable to break through against the Red Devils, the finish as the 9th District runner-up and earn a bid in the 3rd Region tournament next week. Head coach Tim Riley said they’ll have to improve to keep their season alive.
“Scoring 25 points in three quarters makes it really hard to hold a team with the speed of Owensboro,” Riley said. “I thought we were doing a better job against them earlier in the year than we are now. Heading into the 3rd Region Tournament we need to get open for the ball, move it around and score more points. We cannot let our opponents take us out of what we need to do on offense.”
Following the game, the All-District Teams were announced as follows:
Gavan Ray — Daviess County
Dakota Walden — Daviess County
John Parker — Owensboro Catholic
Andrew Riney — Owensboro Catholic
Amari Robinson-Wales — Owensboro
Jaiden Greathouse — Owensboro
Gavin Wimsatt —Owensboro
Darrion Wimsatt (Player of the Year) — Owensboro
Scoring
Owensboro Catholic: 9-7-9-21–46
Owensboro: 12-15-13-16–56
Owensboro Catholic: John Parker 10, Drew Hartz 9, Zach Cecil 8, Ji Webb 6, Ty Vincent 5, Peyton Survant 5, Brian Griffith 2, Andrew Riney 1
Owensboro: Darrion Wimsatt 19, Amari Wales 17, Gavin Wimsatt 10, Isaac Humphrey 6, Jaiden Greathouse 4
