The Owensboro Catholic boys’ basketball team knocked off Daviess County 57-43 at home Friday night, but the game wasn’t as lopsided as the score suggests. With just over six minutes to play in the game, Daviess County cut the deficit to just five points and threatened to finally take the lead.
Mason Payne managed to knock down his second 3-point basket of the game to get the Panthers within 41-36, but the Aces responded well with a resounding 11-0 run to take a 16-point lead, its largest of the night.
Owensboro Catholic (14-7, 4-1) was led by a balanced attack from four players who made it into double figures, while Daviess County (8-11, 1-4) only had one player score more than 10 points — Dakota Walden had a game-high 18.
Catholic head coach Tim Riley was pleased with the way his team bounced back after a tough loss just two days before.
“I thought defensively we weren’t bad,” Riley said. “The last time we faced Daviess County, Dakota Walden had about 35 points and tonight we held him to 18 points. Peyton Survant shot the ball particularly well tonight in an otherwise balanced scoring effort from our guys.”
Survant had four made 3-pointers, a big reason Catholic was able to take an early lead. Another bright spot on the night for the Aces was Zach Cecil’s quiet 6-point effort.
Riley said Cecil is a solid senior leader whose consistency has served the Aces well on the season.
“Cecil is kind of an engine guy for us, kind of a glue guy,” Riley said. “He’s just a solid person off the court as well. He’s a 4.0 straight A student who stays out of trouble and does all that is asked of him. He is, in a word, conscientious.”
Survant and John Parker led the Aces with 12 points each. Drew Hartz and Andre Riney both added 11.
Up Next: Owensboro Catholic vs. Greenwood (at Warren Central), 12 p.m. Saturday; Daviess County vs. Barren County (at Owensboro Sportscenter), 3 p.m. Saturday
Scoring
Daviess Co. 10-9-12-12–43
O. Catholic 16-11-12-18–57
Daviess County: Dakota Walden 18, Mason Payne 8, Gavin Ray 7, Cameron Johnson 7, Chase Luckett 2, Logan Hillard 1
Owensboro Catholic: Peyton Survant 12, John Parker 12, Drew Hartz 11, Andrew Riney 11, Zach Cecil 6, Ty Vincent 5
