Though it was a tight contest early, Owensboro used strong play from their guards and big men alike to pull away and cruise to a 69-43 victory at Daviess County in Friday night’s 9th District matchup.
The Red Devils (13-8) got plenty of help from their frontcourt duo of Jaiden Greathouse and Gavin Wimsatt, who nearly combined to match the total scoring form the Panthers (6-13). Greathouse finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Wimsatt had a game-high 17 points to go with eight boards.
While they were dominating down low, the freshman backcourt duo of Kenyata Carbon and Cayman Powell managed to handle the pressure of the Daviess County defense for the duration of the contest.
“The young guys can play and there is no sense in holding them back,” said OHS head coach Rod Drake. “If we don’t play them this year, we will be in the same situation next year, so I’m glad they are getting better with more games. To this point in the season we have played a really tough schedule, and we threw those guys into the fire. They’ve come out alright because they aren’t playing like freshmen anymore.”
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For more photos from the game, click here.
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Though the the Red Devils started pulling away in the second quarter, the game was tightly contested for most of the first half.
Daviess County’s high-octane defense found success early, and they trailed only 11-8 at the end of the first period. Camron Johnson led the first-quarter charge for the Panthers but was quickly sidelined with foul trouble in the second quarter.
Johnson’s absence proved a tall task to overcome for DC, and Greathouse exploited the Panthers down low with 12 second-quarter points.
The Red Devils started the third quarter up 32-23 — a margin that remained roughly the same until a 13-0 run for the helped their lead balloon to 23 points at 63-40 with just 2:17 remaining in the game.
Drake was pleased with the way his team seemed to improve as the game wore on, never taking their foot off the gas.
“We got a little better tonight, I know we did,” Drake said. “The difference in this performance was that we never really had a dropoff. Daviess County is a good shooting team, so I was pleased with the effort from our guys on both ends tonight.”
Carbon and fellow guard Amari Wales finished with 12 points each for OHS.
Logan Hillard led DC with 11 points, Ryan Thomson had eight points and five assists, and Bo Stratton added six points and eight rebounds.
Owensboro returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when they host Madisonville-North Hopkins. Daviess County will also have a 7:30 p.m. home game Tuesday against Henderson County.
BOX SCORE
OHS 11-21-16-21—69
DCHS 8-15-7-13—43
OHS (69): Gavin Wimsatt 17, Jaiden Greathouse 16, Kenyatta Carbon 12, Amari Wales 12, Cayman Powell 5, Imonte Owsley 3, Isaac Humphrey 2, Tucker Hagan 2
DCHS (43): Logan Hillard 11, Ryan Thomson 8, Cameron Johnson 7, Hunter Gibson 6, Bo Stratton 6, Joe Humphreys 4, Cole Burch 1.
