The Red Devils hit the road Friday for the short trip to Apollo High School to take on the Eagles on their homecourt. For head coach Rod Drake’s squad, it was a great night, as Owensboro (6-1, 2-0) routed Apollo (0-7, 0-2) by a final score of 87-53.
In the first half, Amari Wales put on a show, scoring 19 of his game-leading 28 points. The Red Devils worked their way to a 43-25 lead in a first half Drake comically noted as ‘sluggish’ after the game ended.
“I thought we played a little sluggish in the first half, but we picked it up a bit in the second half,” Drake said. “Our kids know what their record was like before the game, and like I told them, the most disrespectful thing you can do is go out and not play your hardest. Amari is obviously an intricate part of our program and he brought it tonight and the kids followed right after him. It was a good, total team effort tonight and even though Apollo isn’t where they have been in the past, it’s still a district game and it’s good to get a win on the road.”
The second half was certainly an improvement for the Red Devils, as Apollo struggled to get stops on the defensive end of the court. Playing fast is almost always the gameplan for Owensboro, and the third quarter was an accurate display of the terrific speed that they boast up and down their roster. The visitors had eight different players get into the score column on the night, emptying their bench for much of the fourth quarter. The rest was much-needed for the starting core, as Owensboro heads to Warren Central on Saturday in a huge clash of western Kentucky powerhouses.
“I wanted to get the guys ready for tomorrow coming into this game,” Drake said. “Warren Central has a really good team and we could very well be on the other end of a running clock if we aren’t careful in that game.”
While Owensboro looks ahead to another big game, Apollo will be looking back at a night that could have been, as they continue to look for their first win of the 2021-22 season. Head coach Mark Starns was proud of his young team’s effort, even though the final result wasn’t what they’d hoped it to be before tipoff.
“We got out to a pretty good start early,” Starns said. “Their quickness presented a problem for us, as it does for almost anybody. At 0-7, we can all go run and hide, but I don’t want to do that. We are going to keep fighting. It was a good experience for some of our younger guys, as Owensboro is always in the upper-echelon in the region. That’s what we want Apollo to get back to as well. We want to be a team fighting for a shot at a regional title every year.”
For the Eagles, Jaden Kelly led the way with 17 points, followed closely behind by Eli Masterson and Zhiane Tutt with 12 points each of their own. Ultimately, however, the quickness of the Red Devils that coach Starns noted after the game was too much to handle for the home team on the night.
Up next for Apollo is a trip to Murray on Saturday for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off. For Owensboro, the aforementioned matchup with Warren Central will tip-off at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday as well.
