Another standout performance by Dakota Walden powered the Daviess County boys’ basketball team past Hancock County for a 68-55 home win, snapping a three-game losing streak.
The Panthers (2-4) played from behind through the first half of Monday’s 3rd Region matchup, but they used an aggressive full-court press to create some opportunities and take the lead by halftime.
“It’s a little bit of who we are,” said Daviess County head coach Neil Hayden of the pressure. “We try to find spots in each game. I thought we got off to a little sluggish start, so we wanted to see what it would look like. We needed to get some easy baskets because they were doing a good job defensively on us.”
Despite their defensive effort, the Hornets (2-6) were the latest team that struggled to contain Walden. He finished with 28 points on 11-for-14 shooting (3-for-5 from 3-point range). In his last two games, Walden has 63 points on 24-for-31 from the field (11-for-13 from 3) with eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.
“He’s shooting the ball well,” Hayden said. “He’s playing confident, and we need him to.”
Three consecutive buckets by Walden put the Panthers up 20-15 early in the second quarter, and they never gave up the lead.
Daviess County went up by as many as 12 points, and back-to-back 3-pointers from Walden and Logan Hillard to close the third had the Panthers up 53-43.
The Hornets made one final attempt at a comeback and closed the gap to as little as five points with some pressure of their own. Taking care of the ball is something Hayden said his team still has to work on.
“We had multiple segments where we had two or three in a row,” he said. “We’ve got to cut those down. You’re never going to play a perfect game, but we’ve got to make sure we don’t give the other team high percentage baskets.”
After finally getting their second win of December, Hayden said he hopes it creates some momentum as the Panthers are about to face some stiff competition.
“It always feels good to win,” Hayden said. “We’ve been working hard so I’m just proud for the guys to get one and hopefully feel good about themselves as we go into two pretty difficult tournaments.”
First up will be the Owensboro Invitational Tournament, and Daviess County plays in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Bowling Green. They’ll also play Apollo on Friday and John Hardin on Saturday, then potentially play Saturday night in the championship game.
Hayden hopes closing the calendar year strong will help Daviess County be better prepared as they turn sights toward the postseason.
“It’s a time where you see some good teams,” he said. “It’s still about us, and we want to get better over these next two weeks. Hopefully when we get into January, we’ve seen about every style of basketball you can face to get us ready for a district and region run.”
Daviess County stats: Dakota Walden (28 points), Ryan Thomson (9 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists), Gavin Ray (8 points), Logan Hillard (7 points), Blake Baker (5 points), Camron Johnson (4 points), Chase Luckett (4 points), Mason Payne (3 points)
