Going into Tuesday’s 9th District Tournament semifinal, Owensboro Catholic coach Tim Riley had a magic number of 50. He said if they could hold Daviess County to under 50 points then they had a chance to win the game.
At the half, the game was tied 25-25. While Riley’s magic number was 50, it should have also been 22.
That’s what Catholic held the Panthers to in the second half, but it’s also the game-high scored by Ji Webb as the Aces held off the Panthers 55-47 to advance to their sixth-straight 3rd Region Tournament.
Catholic was without Gray Weaver and Brian Griffith as the two standouts were both injured but that didn’t deter the Aces.
“Our kids, we felt like we could beat them,” Riley said. “We’re hurt without Brian and Gray and what all we’ve been through. These kids fought through there and we thought we could win. That’s the approach we took to it.”
Without their top two of their top three scorers out, Riley and the Aces knew they were behind the eight ball.
“We don’t have anything to lose,” he said was the message. “If we lose this game, people would say it is what it is because of what all happened so it took a little bit of the pressure off. At the same time, we weren’t just coming over here to try to play the game. We felt like we could win the basketball and that’s what we did. We punched our ticket to the regional tournament and now we get to go. Happy for those guys they get to go back.”
While the end result was in favor the Aces, it took a battle to make that happen as teams went back-and-forth during the first half.
The Panthers held Webb to just four points in the first half as they kept the game close with five 3-pointers. But when the halftime buzzer sounded, a switch flipped for Webb as he dropped 18 points in the final two quarters.
“He’s a tremendous talent when he wants to get going,” Riley said. “He’s been facing double and triple teams, people spending all their time trying to keep him from getting stuff. It’s hard sometimes to keep everybody patient enough for him to get his touches. He finally got some touches … Made some big shots.”
Going into the matchup, Webb said his mentality didn’t change very much but he knew he had to be more aggressive.
When the score was tied at the half, he knew he needed to make a change.
“I knew that wasn’t going to cut it so my mindset was score, score, score,” he said. “We’ve got to get points on the board.”
Catholic had a six-point lead going into the final frame and after two early DC buckets from Joe Humphreys, held the Panthers without a field goal until the final minute.
Webb said the win is a testament of their team.
“It shows how much of a family we are,” he said. “We got hit hard. Everybody else was getting hit with Covid, we got hit with injuries. We got hit in the mouth, we took it, we ate it. We came out and we played … It shows how good we can work together and we can pull through.”
Sam McFarland added 13 points for the Aces while Braden Mundy scored seven points and made several plays throughout the night.
Max Dees led DC with 15 points and was the only Panther in double figures.
Daviess County coach Neil Hayden said after the game he wants his younger players to remember how they felt Tuesday night.
“I hope just the feeling of the rejection of it,” he said. “Carry that into the offseason, that it encourages them to get back to it. We briefly talked about it at the end of the game, just getting tired of feeling that way.”
With several underclassmen holding prominent roles by the end of the season, Hayden said he’s ready to have a full summer with his team.
“I hope we can carry that into some experience and get better,” he said. “It is what you make of it. That’s our only option.”
DC ends the season at 5-14 while the Aces now sit at 16-8.
Catholic plays at 7 p.m. Thursday against Owensboro for the 9th District Tournament championship.
OWENSBORO CATHOLIC 55, DAVIESS COUNTY 47
DC (5-14) 12 13 11 11–47
OC (16-8) 16 9 17 13–55
DC: Joe Humphreys 9, Cole Burch 7, Max Dees 15, Jack Payne 8, Bo Stratton 2, Camron Johnson 6
OC: Braden Mundy 7, Parker Gray 5, Luke Scales 5, Ji Webb 22, Sam McFarland 13, Noah Johnson 3
2021 basketball coverage is presented in part by Rhoads & Rhoads Attorneys at Law.
