Daviess County picked up a much-needed win Friday night, riding a huge effort by Camron Johnson in a 71-60 home victory over Apollo to close out 9th District play.
Johnson finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds, helping the Panthers (7-19, 1-5) snap a seven-game losing skid and avenge their January overtime loss to the Eagles (5-22, 1-5).
For a team that has struggled to close out winnable games this year, DC head coach Neil Hayden felt this was just the kind of morale booster his team needed heading into postseason play.
“I thought we played to win for 32 minutes tonight,” Hayden said. “We’ve been in games this season that we really wanted to be able to close out that we have not, and tonight was a good step in the right direction.”
Like they have in most of their recent games, the Eagles were able to keep the score close for much of the night. After a back-and-forth first quarter, Apollo’s Malik Wilson found Harrison Bowman for a long-range 3-pointer. The big shot capped a strong run of play, and it left the teams knotted at 13-all going into the second quarter.
Similar to their first meeting, Daviess County worked their way to a small lead by halftime, riding Logan Hillard’s 10-points in the second quarter to a 27-21 advantage at the break.
In the second half, Apollo fell behind as Johnson paced the Panthers with 14 of his team’s 25 third-period points. By the time Bo Stratton converted the final bucket of the quarter on a strong drive to the hoop, DC pushed their lead to 52-34.
Aside from some foul trouble — both Johnson and Koki Kato fouled out in the fourth quarter — Daviess County found a relatively smooth path to victory.
Hayden praised his team’s defensive effort on Apollo forwards Ryan Ash and Dan St. Claire, a duo that helped Eagles prevailed in January.
“I thought we did a good job on their bigs,” Hayden said. “St. Claire and Ash really bothered us in the first matchup and they weren’t much of a factor tonight. They really took it to us (as a team) in the paint that first game, and tonight it was a different story. Hopefully, we can build on this and get some confidence going into district play.”
Johnson’s 25 points led all scorers, and Hillard added 18 for DC. Apollo was led by Bowman with 13 and Wilson with 11.
With Daviess County’s win, they moved into a tie for third place with Apollo in the district standings. A coin flip will determine their seeding for the 9th District tournament at the Sportscenter. The No. 3 seed will play Owensboro Catholic, while the No. 4 seed plays Owensboro.
Daviess County returns to action Monday at home against Grayson County, while Apollo will look to bounce back Tuesday when they travel to Madisonville-North Hopkins.
BOX SCORE
AHS 13-8-13-26—60
DCHS 13-14-25-19—71
AHS (60): Harrison Bowman (13), Malik Wilson (11), Ryan Ash (8), Landon Hamilton (6), Devaughn Johnson (5), Jamen Kinison (5), Cameron Frantz (4), Logan Rhinerson (3), Luke Girvin (3), Dan St. Claire (2)
DCHS (72): Camron Johnson (25), Logan Hillard (18), Koki Kato (7), Ryan Thomson (7), Will Barron (7), Bo Stratton (5), Cole Burch (2)
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