Owensboro had made a habit of pressuring teams and forcing turnovers all season long but on Friday at the Sportscenter, that script was flipped.
Muhlenberg County came into the game as the underdog in some fans eyes but that narrative was quickly changed as the Mustangs upended the Red Devils for their first 3rd Region Tournament championship appearance since 2014 when they took down Owensboro 60-39.
Red Devil coach Rod Drake said the Mustangs did everything they needed to to get the win.
“They outtoughed us tonight,” he said. “We didn’t convert. They let us play. We just didn’t convert. They were tougher than we were down the stretch. They had a moment there where we missed layups and they made layups. That was it. That’s an eight-point swing. There were several times it was like a hot potato, we kicked it in then they’d come back at score. I told our guys the same thing at the beginning of the year about being tough and it comes back to bite you.
“We weren’t tough tonight. Seemed like we were in a daze. I think we got caught up in the hype.”
While Owensboro has been the dictator of tempo in most of their games this season, Muhlenberg County coach Kyle Eades said he knew that would be the key to the game.
“With as quick as those guys are, we talked about controlling the tempo,” he said. “We try to control the tempo at the defensive end. A lot of people think when you try to control the tempo, you’re going to hold the ball, hold the ball. That’s not how we play. We try to just be really solid, we try to be really connected on the defensive end. I thought our guys did a tremendous job. Their effort, people don’t realize how much effort that requires. They were constantly communicating tonight … Overall I thought we were able to control the game on defense and rebounding.”
Owensboro controlled the beginning of the game but midway through the first, a switch was flipped and it was the Mustangs that grabbed momentum and never let it go.
The game was tied 20-20 in the second quarter before Muhlenberg County went on a run that would end when the final buzzer sounded.
Drake said he thought they had the gameplan down.
“We were ready to play. I thought we were ready to play,” he said. “We had a couple shots that didn’t go down early and I think we started thinking about it. Then they were converting and we weren’t.”
Senior Amari Robinson-Wales was the only Red Devils in double figures as he had 11 points in his last game for OHS. Robinson-Wales and Kenyata Carbon each had eight points at the break but they weren’t easy buckets.
Eades said disrupting the Red Devils guard play was key.
“I thought we did a good job of keeping Owensboro out of the lane,” he said. “Which is not an easy task, especially when you’re dealing with guys like Cayman Powell, Amari Robinson-Wales and Kenyata Carbon. I thought we did a good job on the glass. Our stats came out pretty close to even and I felt like if we could be in the rebounding battle +/- 3, that we would have a chance.”
Even in the beginning of the game when the Red Devils were the aggressor, the Mustangs didn’t blink as they held firm and eventually road the storm into clear skies.
Eades said they knew Owensboro would be a battle.
“We haven’t backed down from anybody all year,” he said. “I give credit to Owensboro. They’ve got a tremendous team, obviously, they’re very well-coached. We’ve got a lot of respect for those guys but when we go into this game, we’re not backing down. We’re not backing down from anybody.”
Muhlenberg County is 1-3 in 3rd Region Tournament championships with their lone victory coming in 2010 against Apollo, the first year the school opened.
The Mustangs will go for their second win Sunday as they take on Owensboro Catholic.
MUHLENBERG COUNTY 60, OWENSBORO 39
MC (18-1) 16 14 15 15–60
OHS (12-6) 10 12 6 11–39
MC: Brayden Lovan 11, Trey Lovell 14, Nash Divine 11, Cole Vincent 18, Davion Summers 2, Donovan McCoy 2, Alex Johnston 2
OHS: Amari Robinson-Wales 10, Maurice Moorman 2, Cayman Powell 4, Kenyata Carbon 8, Taquan Robinson 2, Trey Hinton 2, Matt Brown 4, Talas Taylor 4, Dylon Talbott 3
2021 basketball coverage is presented in part by Rhoads & Rhoads Attorneys at Law.
