Owensboro Catholic defeated Edmonson County in a big 87-55 win that sees them through to the Final 4. Luke Beickman hit a career milestone during the game as his 21 points lifted him over the 1,000-point mark with the Aces.
Catholic took control of the game early on with an intense defense right out of the gate. Dre’mail Carothers opened the scoring on the night with a three pointer. Frick assisted on the next buckets to Bieckman and Vince Carrico. OCHS had an 11-0 lead before Edmonson got on the scoreboard thanks to their defense down in the paint. The defensive effort stayed strong for the remainder of the quarter as Solly Smith had a block and Carothers closed out the first quarter with a steal that led to a quick layup. The Aces led 20-5 going into the second.
The Aces defensive effort in the first half was strong, but OCHS head coach Tim Riley said the team’s 6 steals could have been better. A big focus point on defense was Wildcats guard Will Alexander who has been a problem for OCHS in the past, he said.
“The Alexander kid killed us last year, and he had 21,” he said. “We had to find him, and we had to keep the ball in front of us. We had 6 steals, and it’s not bad but it could be better. They hurt us on the glass too, and that concerns me.”
Edmonson opened the scoring in the second quarter with a finish in the paint followed by a three. Waryn Ebelhar answered right back with the first of his 6 total threes. OCHS was showing off their range for much of the second quarter as they had 7 threes. Ebelhar specifically found a good rhythm as he made 5 of those 7 threes with the other two coming from Beickman. Edmonson made it a shootout as they made 5 threes in the quarter with 4 coming from Alexander. Beickman’s second three from the corner closed out the first half at 45-27.
The Aces kept their high tempo going in the third quarter as they went on a 16-4 scoring run to further extend their lead. Owensboro Catholic eased off the three point one and aggressively attacked the lanes until they found an opening to the basket like Carothers and Beickman who both drew fouls on layups to start the scoring run. After another three from Beickman, Kaiser Frick made a contested three as the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter 69-42.
Despite their big lead, the Aces didn’t ease off the gas and kept things at a high-pace. A quick sequence of passes got Carrico open down low for an easy layup early in the quarter. Edmonson kept fighting and looking for scoring opportunities as they followed up with a free throw and two three pointers. The ball movement from OCHS got Carrico open two more times for easy buckets. Ebelahr made his final three pointer along with Jake Murphy who made an open three for the final shot of the game. Owensboro Catholic took the win at 87-55.
Ebelhar’s shot 6 of 9 from the three point line and had 24 total points to lead the Aces in scoring. Beickman followed behind with 3 threes and 21 points. Solly Smith scored 14 points on the night and shot 4 of 5 on free throws.
With this win Owensboro Catholic advanced to the Final 4 where they take on Muhlenberg County on Saturday at 6 p.m. Riley said that Muhlenberg seem to be playing with confidence as they had a big win over Meade, and his team’s goal is to simply survive to play another day.
“They’re a good, solid little basketball team,” he said. “We played them earlier in the season, I missed that game with the flu, and played them into overtime at their place. They’re playing with a lot of confidence it looks like. They had a big win tonight. We’ll just have to try to survive and move on to the next one.”
