After starting the season 2-0, the Daviess County Panthers have lost three-straight contests with the latest coming Saturday morning against Henderson County in the Agrigold Winter Classic at the Owensboro Sportscenter.
Despite being down nearly 20 points multiple times during the game, the Panthers got the deficit to two late in the fourth but the Cols came away with the 53-49 victory.
DC coach Neil Hayden said he’s impressed by his teams resiliency but he’s not surprised.
“I’ve said it this whole time with Covid and stops and starts and even in our games, our guys have really good energy for one another,” he said. “It’s a very close-knit, supportive team but we also know we don’t want moral victories, we need to get Ws in the column so we know what we need to fix and hopefully we’ll get better each game.”
Henderson County held the Panthers to just three points in the first frame as Isaiah Tomes hit a 3-pointer late in the quarter to make it 12-3 after one.
DC’s offense came alive a bit in the second but still trailed 25-14 at halftime.
Hayden described his message to his team at the break.
“Keep playing,” he said. “We felt the whole time that what we wanted to do when we got set and did it, worked. Half their points came off of our mistakes. When we got set, offense or defense, we were good. It was good, let’s keep playing, chip away. It’s too early in the year to throw things in and start overhauling anything.”
The Panthers had 25 turnovers in the game with the Colonels pressure causing havoc.
Hayden said when he watched his team struggle to get the ball up the court, he just had one thought on his mind.
“Let’s get one. Let’s get a basket so we can get our defense set then build on that,” he said. “Slow down, let’s be as fundamental as possible.”
Daviess County’s best offensive output came in the fourth quarter as they outscored the Colonels 23-10. The Panthers got the game to within two in the closing minutes but Henderson County put it away at the free-throw line to grab the win.
JR McCain led the Panthers with 11 points while Cole Burch also finished in double digits with 10 points.
Hayden said not having the summer with a young team didn’t help them this season.
“We need these games to get better and we need all of our practices,” he said. “We’ve got a group of guys that haven’t played in these spots so we’re just going to use these games to get ready.”
Next up for DC is Owensboro at OHS on Monday in both teams first 9th District matchup of the season.
Hayden said he knows the Red Devils will be ready after being off for two weeks due to Covid-19 protocols.
“They’ve been sitting around two weeks watching other people play, they’re going to probably want to take out their frustration and anxiousness,” he said. “It’s a district game. Nothing different than let’s get better, let’s figure out where we are, what we need to do. We feel like we know how they’ll attack us so let’s then turn around and attack them and the things we want to take away from them. They’re a really solid basketball team. We know it’ll be a game where they’re ready to play.”
Henderson County 53, Daviess County 49
DC (2-3) 3 11 12 23–49
HC (2-1) 12 13 18 10–53
DC: JR McCain 11, Cole Burch 10, Jack Payne 8, Isaiah Tomes 6, Camron Johnson 5, Max Dees 4, Koki Kato 3, Cameron Jones
2021 basketball coverage is presented in part by Rhoads & Rhoads Attorneys at Law.
