Daviess County was on the verge of an upset victory Friday night, but Owensboro Catholic had just enough to steal a 49-42 overtime win at the Sportscenter.
After leading for much of the fourth quarter, the Panthers (6-15) were unable to close out the game due to a few offensive woes combined with some bad luck down the stretch.
“They played their tail off and probably should have won the game,” said Catholic head coach Tim Riley. “I think they lost a little bit of their edge there when they didn’t finish it off in regulation.”
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A nice spin move and bucket by Logan Hillard put DC up 38-35 with 1:50 to play, marking the last score in regulation for the Panthers. Catholic cut the deficit to one a minute later, forcing a turnover at one end that led to a fadeaway jumper by Brian Griffith at the other.
DC came out on the wrong end of a few 50-50 foul calls over the final minute, leaving them scrambling to stay on top.
After Catholic missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to leave the Panthers’ lead at 38-37, Daviess County also missed the front end of their 1-and-1, though a jump ball on the rebound left possession with the Panthers. After again misfiring on the front end of bonus free throws, a DC foul on the rebound sent the Aces back to the line.
Drew Hartz hit the second of two free throws to knot the game at 38-all with 21.7 seconds left in regulation. DC missed a 3-pointer in the waning seconds, and a putback attempt just before the buzzer was blocked.
Hartz knocked down a 3 with 2:50 left in the overtime period to put the Aces in front for good. He and Andrew Riney later scored on cuts to the basket on back-to-back possessions to push the lead to 47-40 with just under a minute to play.
“I’m just glad we won,” Riley said. “We didn’t play well.”
Catholic took a 13-2 advantage after the first quarter, but the Panthers tied the game at 18 after Hillard hit a pullup jumper just before halftime. Hillard and Koki Kato accounted for a 10-4 run that pushed DC in front 32-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
Griffith finished with a game-high 16 points to pace Catholic, who also got 13 from Hartz. Hillard led the Panthers with 15 points.
The Aces went 15-for-20 from the free throw line, while DC was just 4-for-10. Catholic got to the line 16 times in the second half compared to just five for the Panthers.
BOX SCORE
DCHS 2-16-14-6-4—42
OCHS 13-5-12-8-11—49
DCHS (42): Logan Hillard 15, Koki Kato 8, Ryan Thomson 5, Camron Johnson 5, Cole Burch 4, Isaiah Tomes 3, Bo Stratton 2
OCHS (49): Brian Griffith 16, Drew Hartz 13, Ji Webb 7, Andrew Riney 5, Luke Scales 5, Sam McFarland 2, Gray Weaver 1
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