When teams play against Daviess County, Jonathan Moss is always at the top of the scouting report. His athleticism and scoring ability were on full display against Hancock County Saturday, pulling up from deep to start the game. When he wasn’t open from beyond the arc, he found ways to cut to the hoop, allowing Jaxon Brown to continually find himself open from three – sinking three threes in the first half as a result.
Moss finished with a game high 23 points and five assists to power the Panthers to a 63-44 win over the Hornets. He also added four blocks, three rebounds, and an assist.
“We are good when Moss is good,” Daviess County head coach Neil Hayden said. “The more he can get going, more people touch the ball – he is super unselfish. The faster he gets to play the better we are.”
The Panthers jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but after a timeout, Hancock County immediately tied it. From there, Daviess County slowly pulled away taking a six-point lead into the second quarter and a 13-point lead into halftime.
In the third quarter, Moss completely took over the game, scoring 12 of his team’s 20 points. Despite being held scoreless in the third quarter, DeAaron Watkins still finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds.
“Daviess County hit some big shots,” Hancock County head coach Josh Roberts said. “Watkins was good and they also have Moss. It’s pick your poison. We tried to keep him from getting to the rim, but he hit threes. So, what do you do? They are just really good players.”
The Panthers pulled their starters half way through the fourth quarter, allowing some of their bench players to get some crucial minutes.
“I thought we did some good things,” Hayden said. “I thought Jonathan got going and the more we got in the paint the better we were. We tried to push them as much as we could defensively and just to speed them up. We didn’t turn them over that much, so we just wanted to speed them up to turn it into a half-court game.”
Brown finished second on the Panthers in scoring with 11 points and added four rebounds, one steal, and one assist, while Aydan Ayer recorded five points, five rebounds, and four assists.
For the Hornets, Alex Madden, Keegan Wilson, Seth Hunt, and Tyce Boiling each had nine points.
Despite the loss, Roberts was thrilled with his teams performance, calling it one of their strongest outings of the season.
I thought we played well. Daviess County is one of the powerhouses in the region. We are without our starting point guard and guys are stepping up. We only turned it over six times, which had been a problem for us all year. We shot 32% from the field – we had some guys miss some shots that we usually hit and we got what we wanted. Sometimes you hit and sometimes you don’t.”
After the pending inclement weather moved their 3rd Region All-A game to yesterday, Frederick Fraize (Cloverport) had to forfeit, allowing for the Hornets and Panthers to play their originally scheduled match. Now, the Hornets advanced to the finals of the All-A and await the winner of the semi-final match between Owensboro Catholic and Trinity (Whitesville). Their game is set for Monday, but might be rescheduled due to the incoming weather.
