Owensboro Catholic put together one of their best defensive performances of the year Saturday night, and they comfortably pulled away for a 57-40 win over McLean County in the semifinals of the 3rd Region tournament.
The Aces (20-14) will meet Owensboro in the championship game at 7 p.m. Tuesday night after the Red Devils (21-10) held off Muhlenberg County 56-45 in the other semifinal.
Catholic will play in their third title game in the last five years — they won in 2016 and lost in 2018.
“It’s just exciting for all our kids to have this opportunity to play for a region championship,” said Owensboro Catholic head coach Tim Riley. “It doesn’t get much better than that. I told one of them this is what we do it all for — to try to get to this game and play in this game.”
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For more photos from the game, click here.
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The Aces never trailed in the win over the Cougars (22-12), with Gray Weaver knocking down a 3-pointer on the opening possession. Drew Hartz then scored on a pair of cuts to the basket and added a triple of his own.
After a personal 7-0 run by Brian Griffith, a late bucket by Ji Webb pushed Catholic’s lead to 19-11 after the first quarter.
McLean County’s Logan Patterson got two quick scores in the second period to get the Cougars within four before Griffith scored on a fast break with 5:40 to left in the half. After a three-minute scoring drought that went both ways, Patterson again cut the deficit to four.
That’s the closest McLean got the rest of the way. Andrew Riney scored on a putback and Hartz hit another 3 to put Catholic up 26-17 heading into halftime.
Jacob Clark hit a free throw then scored on back-to-back steals midway through the third quarter to get the Cougars within 30-22.
A corner 3 by Brian Griffith then put the Aces up by double digits for good. Riney and Griffith each added a fast break layup to give them a 37-23 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Griffith found Webb for an emphatic alley-oop and a 43-27 lead with 5:35 to play, and from there Catholic was able to maintain their distance by going 14-for-16 at the free throw line down the stretch.
The Cougars were never able to find any rhythm on offense throughout the game.
“I thought defensively we were really good, holding them to 40 points,” Riley said. “That’s a big key. We’ve kind of been a team that can guard them really well in the first half but then get a little fatigued. We continued to guard really well.”
It helped that Catholic’s offense was able to find success in the opening minutes to establish early control.
“Drew hit some big shots right off the bat,” Riley said. “When he hits those shots it kind of helps get us going. Then Ji was a force down inside. We got it to him and some good things happened.”
Webb and Brian Griffith each finished with 14 points, while Riney added 11 and Hartz had 10. Webb and Riney did most of their damage in the fourth quarter — Webb scored 10 points and went 8-for-10 at the line, while Riney scored seven and was 5-for-6 from the stripe.
With the victory, Catholic has now won at least 20 games in four of the last five years — the exception being last season’s 18-12 campaign.
Riley is hoping they can carry their momentum from the last few weeks forward and add at least one more victory.
“We’ve played well,” he said. “Tuesday night is a big game. We played tough people to kind of get you ready for it.”
BOX SCORE
MCHS 11-6-6-17—40
OCHS 19-7-11-20—57
MCHS (40): Logan Patterson (22), Jacob Clark (10), Brady Dame (4), Trey Englehardt (2), Andrew Brackett (2)
OCHS (57): Brian Griffith (14), Ji Webb (14), Andrew Riney (11), Drew Hartz (10), Gray Weaver (5), Luke Scales (3)
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