In a tale of two halves on Friday night, the Daviess County boys’ basketball team dismantled the visitors from Apollo in runaway fashion.
Winning the game by a final scoreline of 58-30, the Panthers took full advantage of a woeful shooting performance from the Eagles, who finished the game with just 12 made field-goal attempts.
The home team was led by in scoring by sophomore Cole Burch, who finished the game with 19 points to go along with 9 rebounds and 4 steals. Joe Humphreys and Max Dees also turned in big efforts, scoring 12 and 15 respectively. Humphreys’ 12 points all came after the halftime break, as Apollo failed to maintain the defensive effort they displayed in the first two quarters.
Though the Panthers enjoyed a comfortable final scoreline, it wasn’t always a straightforward victory. In fact, at the end of the first quarter, it was Apollo who had the lead, by a score of 11-7. In that quarter alone, Daviess County turned the ball over six times, while connecting on just three field-goal attempts. Apollo senior Landon Hamilton was the direct benefactor of two fastbreak layups that came from two of the six Daviess County turnovers.
The lead did not last long for Apollo, however, as Cole Burch converted back-to-back layups to tie the game early in the second quarter. After trading buckets for much of the next eight minutes, Daviess County opened up a 22-17 advantage at the break.
And then the floodgates opened to the tune of a 15-2 scoring run by the Panthers, ending finally on a Harrison Bowman 3-pointer for the Eagles with just 57.0 to go in the third quarter. By that time in the contest, Apollo was trailing by double digits, and victory was well-secured for the Panthers.
Daviess County head coach Neil Hayden was ecstatic with the result, commenting on the effort from his young players.
“It took us a few minutes to get going tonight,” Hayden said. “I was proud of the way our guys battled tonight, especially our start in the third quarter. In the last few games we’ve lost, we’ve won every four-minute segment except for the start of the third quarter, so I’m glad we could put it together tonight. We played a full 32 minutes of basketball on both ends, playing hard defense and converting our shot attempts on the offensive end.
Hayden continued on to highlight the efforts of the three aforementioned Panthers in Burch, Dees and Humphreys.
“Cole continues to be really consistent for us this year, he comes early every day and stays late after practice, he really earns everything he’s getting for us. Max has really played within himself the last few games for us, and he has shown he can attack the lane as well as anyone we have. Joe played really aggressively on both ends of the floor tonight and we really relied on his scoring in this game. We needed a win tonight and we were fortunate to come away with one.”
For Apollo and head coach Mark Starns, Friday night’s loss on Luther Beatley Court was a disappointing pill to swallow as they undoubtedly had high hopes for the district matchup.
“We didn’t put the ball in the basket tonight as we really struggled to score,” Starns said. “In the first quarter we had energy on both ends, but we weren’t able to maintain that effort. In the end, we allowed the offensive end of the floor to affect the defensive end of the floor, and we can’t have that if we expect to win games. We knew they’d be playing a matchup zone, but it doesn’t matter what you know if you can’t make shots.”
Up next for both Apollo and Daviess County is a matchup with the Owensboro Red Devils. It will be the Panthers who take the first shot, as they head to Owensboro Saturday for a 6 p.m. tipoff. Next, Apollo will return to action against the Red Devils on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in another district matchup away from home.
Daviess County 58, Apollo 30
DC (5-9) 7 15 17 19 — 58
AHS (3-10) 11 6 5 8 — 30
DC: Cole Burch 19, Max Dees 15, Joe Humphreys 12, Camron Johnson 3, Jack Payne 3, Decker Renfrow 2, Isaiah Tomes 2, Bo Stratton 2
AHS: Dan St. Clair 10, Landon Hamilton 8, Harrison Bowman 7, Jaden Kelly 3, Cameron Frantz 2
2021 basketball coverage is presented in part by Rhoads & Rhoads Attorneys at Law.
