Daviess County holds off Eagles in road win

February 12, 2022 | 12:03 am

Updated February 12, 2022 | 12:48 am

Daviess County went on the road Friday night all the way across town to Apollo High School to face their bitter district rivals. The Panthers (11-14, 3-3) came out on top against the home team by a final score of 64-58. The Eagles (2-22, 0-6), however,  managed to keep the game much closer than their record would have suggested, leading Daviess County for large portions of the first three quarters before finally succumbing. 

In the game, Daviess County senior center Devonte McCampbell wasted no time imposing his will on the undersized Apollo defense en route to nine first-quarter points. The Eagles answered quickly, though, and rode the hot hand of sophomore Eli Masterson (13 first-half points) all the way to a 37-30 halftime lead. Apollo managed to convert seven of ten three-point jump shots, three of which came by way of Masterson while shooting 75% as a team from the field before the break. 

Following halftime, Daviess County went right back to their senior center, and McCampbell answered the call by scoring on a trio of tough plays down low. Jonathan Moss chipped in five points in the third quarter, along with buckets from Gage Phelps and Max Dees as the Panthers came storming back to take a 48-46 lead into the final quarter. 

Senior Apollo guard Jaden Kelly and Masterson combined for 39 points in the game and both teams swapped buckets late into the fourth quarter. With 4:18 to play in the game Masterson connected on a floater to reclaim a lead for the Eagles at 56-54. Shortly after a layup by Grant Smith grew the lead to four. On the other end, Jonathan Moss connected on a layup with 2:42 to go, which also drew a foul call on Alex Morphew. Moss hit the free throw to pull his team within one at 58-57. 

Next, a McCampbell layup, sandwiched a free throw each from Jack Payne and John McCain, respectively. Finally, three free throws from Gage Phelps bookended an untimely turnover from Apollo’s Jaden Kelly to ice the game. Daviess County finished with a flurry of 10 unanswered points for the final scoreline of 64-58. 

After the game, Daviess County head coach Neil Hayden was complimentary of his senior center, as McCampbell finished with a career-high 24 points. 

“He’s improved nearly every game we’ve played this year,” Hayden said. “He’s just doing his job every day in practice and you got to see some of those days stacking on top of each other tonight for him. McCampbell hadn’t had a ton of experience before this year, but that didn’t matter much tonight. Our goal heading into the second half after getting down a little bit there was to get him involved as much as possible and it paid off big tonight. He’s a great kid all the way around.” 

In the opposite locker room, Apollo head coach Mark Starns was left to ruminate on what could have been in the midst of a season of almosts. 

“I feel like our problem this year has been playing great in the first half, but getting outplayed in the second half,” Starns said. “We didn’t put our head down tonight and we kept fighting, but we tend to draw our energy from the offensive end of the court, and when our shots stopped falling we just couldn’t find any more answers on the defensive end either.” 

Up next for the Eagles is a trip to Monroe County on Saturday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off time. For Daviess County, it will be a weekend of rest before hosting Grayson County at home on Tuesday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off. 

February 12, 2022 | 12:03 am

Share this Article

Other articles you may like