Apollo’s Night of Champions ended in a hard fought 55-49 victory after Owensboro Catholic nearly completed a comeback. This was Catholic’s first game of the season, and they trailed for most of the game only to take the lead back in the dying minutes to make the end of the game as electric as a city-county matchup can be.
The fourth quarter started with Apollo leading 42-34. Eagles’ head coach Ryne Tinsley said his message to the team at the start of the quarter was to be more aggressive before they gave up their lead.
“Going into the fourth quarter, I said to the kids that we keep being aggressive,” he said. “I thought we got a little non-aggressive there, so we got to stay on the attack. That’s why we switched up our defense just to get a different look. We’re lucky it worked, and we finished that game.”
Waryn Ebelhar’s bucket for two opened the scoring in the quarter and set in motion what would be an exciting finish. Two fouls on Ebelhar put the Eagle at the line, but they only could score one. The Aces then hit three important three-pointers in a row to take the lead from Apollo for the first time since the first quarter. Luke Beickman hit a contested three pointer, and Tutt Carrico answered Apollo’s bucket with a three.
Catholic’s defense forces enough pressure on the inbounds pass to regain possession. Carrico hit another three to take the lead 47-46. This lead was short lived, as they only extended the lead from one point to three before AHS took back over. Caiden Tutt hustled to get a key steal, and then took the ball to the hole to tie the game back up at 49-49 with a minute and a half left on the clock. Apollo big man Landon Henning went to work in the post with just 15 seconds left to take the lead back at 51-49.
Tutt’s steal along with the rest of his performance in the final minutes earned the praise of Tinsley, who said Tutt was his MVP. The team was discouraged when they went down, but they didn’t give up, Tinsley said.
“I thought they got a little down, but they kept responding,” he said. “Again, with the change of defense Caiden Tutt is MVP there at the end. He was incredible in that 2-2-1 there.”
While OCHS tried to get up the court quickly to answer back, Kelly got the steal and moved up the court so Henning could drop in another bucket to extend the lead to 53-49. Catholic then fouled to send Tate Powers to the line who sank both shots to seal the 55-49 victory. Apollo’s student section rushed the floor to celebrate the hard-fought victory with the team.
Winning the game in this fashion is a feat in and of itself, but TInsley said it was an unbelievable feeling to pull it off on the Night of Champions that the program held before the game. Members of Apollo’s 10 Regional Championship teams were in attendance watching the game from their own special section of the gym.
“It’s unbelievable, and it’s great to have these guys here and support us,” he said. “I mean, we got Wayne Chapman, Rex Chapman’s dad, here and a lot of others here. It’s really special to do it in front of these guys. For the kids to know and be in this situation around guys like that, that’s what we’re trying to get this program back to. It’s great for them to be back her and try to restore that.”
The Aces’ intense defensive pressure really kicked into overdrive at the start of the fourth quarter, but their full court pressing was a part of the game plan from the start. Owensboro Catholic immediately opened the game with a full court press that caused problems for Apollo. Back-to-back steals by Catholic put them at the free throw line twice to put them ahead just barely at 5-0. A steal by Max Johnson led to back-to-back three pointers from Kobe Kelly and Luke Jarboe to stop OCHS from going on an early run.
The Eagles’ had a small lead at 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. Three point shooting was a key factor for both teams. Apollo made 8 three-pointers to help keep a hold on their lead by the end of the second (31-23) and third (42-34) quarters. One of their threes came in spectacular fashion via a halfcourt buzzer beater by Jarboe. Jarboe and Powers both led the team with 3 made three-pointers each. Powers led the team in scoring with 17 points on the night.
Beickman led Catholic in scoring with 14 points on the night. Aces’ head coach Tim Riley said the team had a rough start to the season as most of the team were still playing in the football postseason. The lack of practice for those players played a part in their shooting tonight, Riley said.
“It was hard because there were only four guys dressed that weren’t playing football last Friday night,” he said. “When the kids played hard, they had good intensity. We couldn’t make shots that we normally make. We just haven’t had them. It’s a skill game, and we didn’t make shots. We didn’t play smart when we were up late, and we took a shot we shouldn’t have. We had a couple bad fouls, so we just need to practice. We just got to play games. You can’t learn otherwise.”
