Aces pull away in district opener
Feb. 22—Luke Beickman and Waryn Ebelhar scored 14 points apiece as the Owensboro Catholic High School boys basketball team pulled away in the second half for a 58-50 win over Apollo in the first round of the 9th District Tournament Tuesday night at Owensboro High School.
With the victory, the Aces (26-4) advance to Friday's district championship game to face the winner of Wednesday's contest between Owensboro and Daviess County. Catholic also automatically advances to the 3rd Region Tournament for the eighth consecutive season.
According to OCHS coach Tim Riley, however, his squad was fortunate to escape with the victory.
"We turned the ball over 17 times," he said afterward. "We turned the ball over 10 times probably with four minutes to go in the first half. We just turned it over, and then took bad shots. Just played really, really poor. We're lucky to win.
"We just made a couple more plays than they did."
Neither team found much separation early on, as Catholic pulled ahead 11-9 on a tough floater from Parker Gray within the final minute of the first quarter.
Apollo (5-23) used a quick 5-0 burst to take a 14-11 lead two minutes into the second period before four consecutive foul shots later put the Aces back up 17-16. Four lead changes later, Ebelhar's steal and layup with 1:20 left until halftime helped spark a 6-2 close to the quarter — giving Catholic a 30-25 edge at intermission.
"Waryn played really well, made a big difference for us," Riley said of the sophomore. "He had a big 3 in the first half for us and had a couple steals."
The Eagles' Kobe Kelly split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 32 with 3:22 left in the third, but the Aces scored seven of the next eight points to secure a 39-33 advantage heading into the final frame.
Vince Carrico converted a traditional three-point play that extended Catholic's lead to 48-37 with 4:34 remaining, but the Eagles didn't wither. Zjhan Tutt's 3-pointer with 1:03 to go trimmed the Aces' lead to 52-48, but Catholic converted 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch to keep Apollo at bay.
Brian Griffith finished with 10 points and six rebounds for the Aces, while Beickman and Parker Gray hauled in seven boards apiece. Deuce Sims grabbed six rebounds as well, as Catholic shot 38% from the floor, 3-of-17 from 3-point distance (17.6%) and 17-of-24 at the foul line (70.8%).
Kelly finished with a game-high 21 points to pace Apollo, while Tutt recorded 12 points and 12 rebounds. Kajiah Green grabbed five rebounds, and Donte Dixon added four rebounds with two steals as the Eagles shot 34.1% from the floor, 4-of-15 from long range (26.7%) and 18-of-34 at the free-throw line (52.9%) with 13 turnovers.
"We were going to be the aggressive team tonight," Apollo coach Mark Starns said of his squad's mindset. "We weren't going to get punched in the mouth, we were going to give the punches back. I wasn't going to sit there and take it like it's happened the last two games. There's going to be some more of that coming, too. That's the way we're going to start playing — we're going to be the aggressive team.
"We fought. The press kept us in there, the press gave us the mentality that we're going to hang around. I was proud of the way that they fought all night long."
APOLLO 9 16 8 17 — 50
OWENSBORO CATHOLIC 11 19 9 19 — 58
Apollo (50) — Kelly 21, Z. Tutt 12, Dixon 7, Green 5, Eans 4, C. Tutt 1.
Owensboro Catholic (58) — Beickman 14, Ebelhar 14, Griffith 10, V. Carrico 8, Sims 6, Gray 4, Johnson 2.
