Trailing by as much as 19 in the contest, a monster fourth quarter for the Aces and senior Brian Griffith—who broke the all-time scoring record for Owensboro Catholic in the process—helped force overtime at Owensboro to eventually come away with a hard-fought 80-78 win on the road.
Despite him not knowing, coming into the contest Griffith needed just 10 points to surpass the late James ‘Putney’ McNary and his 1,937 points to become the school’s all-time leading scorer. Averaging 22.6 points on the season, the senior guard didn’t have the strongest start to the night with seven points in the first half but still found himself and his teammates in a dog fight down 35-32 at halftime.
Things weren’t looking great for the Aces coming out of the locker room though, as the Red Devils caught fire and went on a 16-0 run to take a 51-32 lead with 3:30 to go in the third. Owensboro Catholic was eventually able to string together a 10-0 run to cut down its deficit, but still trailed 55-44 going into the fourth.
Owensboro couldn’t put the Aces away either, as Griffith bounced back from a scoreless third quarter in the fourth to help bring them within reach. After sinking a pair of free throws earlier in the quarter, Brian drilled a pair of back-to-back threes that cemented him atop the scoring list at Owensboro Catholic and cut its deficit to 67-61 with 2:03 to go.
This scoring outburst was a result of Griffith letting the game come to him, something that he said his coaches tried to express to him at halftime.
“Just really looking at the floor [made a big difference],” Griffith said. “I knew they were going to double team me and then really just listening to coach Riley. I was trying to force it too much at the beginning and I just had to settle down.”
Griffith had an 8-0 run himself with a steal and a layup on the ensuing possession, but senior Kenyatta Carbon hit junior AP Mitchell for a layup to bring it back to a 69-63 lead for the Red Devils. The Aces responded well though, quickly getting out in transition for a layup by sophomore Luke Beickman to make it a four-point game with just under a minute to play.
Following a brief timeout by the Aces, Griffith stepped up again after a turnover from freshman Jonathan Moss by finding a wide-open Waryn Ebelhar for a corner three to make it a 69-68 game with 38.1 to play in regulation. Senior Talas Taylor was then sent to the line and missed both, but Carbon seemed to be there to clean it up with a putback.
Instead he was called for his fifth and final foul of the night, thus sending Brian to the line and giving him a chance to take the lead. But he was unable to and Owensboro Catholic proceeded to send Moss to the charity stripe, where he made one to put the Red Devils up 70-68 with 24.8 to go.
Griffith was able to answer the call moments later, coming out a timeout for the Aces and taking matters into his own hands with a tough reverse layup to even things up at 70 with about 5.4 seconds to play. Owensboro quickly pushed the ball in transition with senior Cayman Powell leading the way, getting to the middle of the paint for a floater that was off the mark and would’ve sent the game into overtime had Owensboro Catholic senior Parker Gray not been called for a blocking foul just before the buzzer.
With 0.4 seconds back on the clock and Powell at the line with a chance to halt the comeback victory for the Aces, he missed both and a full-court heave from senior Deuce Sims clanged off the rim and signaled overtime for the two teams. Moments into overtime Powell went back to the line and sank the second free throw to give Owensboro a 71-70 lead, but Beickman drilled a big three in response to make it a 73-71 game with 3:25 to go in overtime.
Beickman got another big bucket with two minutes to go in overtime, as junior Tutt Carrico did his best Kevin Love impression with a fullcourt heave to the sophomore guard for a layup to beat the press and take a 76-73 lead. From then on the Aces never looked back, with Beickman’s sixth point of overtime being the game-sealing free throw and Moss’s layup with 0.9 seconds being a mute point in an 80-78 loss for the Red Devils.
Following the game Head Coach Tim Riley said that with such a large deficit earlier in the second half, he told his team to outscore Owensboro in spurts—with the 19-point play ceasing to exist at this point in basketball history. Thanks to their fullcourt pressure, the Aces were able to do just that.
“We just had to get some stops and a couple baskets and then our press kind of shocked them,” Riley said. “We went to press because we didn’t have many options and they didn’t really like it so they turned it over some.”
Griffith’s huge fourth quarter on both ends of the floor played a big role in the Aces comeback, having scored 12 of his 21 in the quarter while also making some crucial assists. Brian found out about grabbing the school’s scoring record with 1,949 career points following the game, and looking back on his journey he’s faced plenty of adversity in the process.
The Owensboro Catholic guard suffered a major knee injury early in his high school career and then had to do like many and battle the COVID year, but instead of sulking he took these challenges head on as a sign from God to gain growth.
“I feel like that helped me a lot,” Griffith said. “With basketball, it’s really been easy for my whole life. It’s been easy and I hadn’t really been working hard and so when I tore my ACL, I think God was trying to send me a little message that I need to start working hard and that’s what has happened.”
Riley said that Griffith’s growth on and off the court has allowed him to really trust his teammates and help him flourish, with the road matchup against the Red Devils being a prime example as Tutt (18), Beickman (14) and Ebelhar (12) all finished in double figures.
“He’s grown up a ton,” Riley said. “He’s learned to work more than he’s ever done and he tries to take care of his knee… The way he’s grown up as a person has been the biggest thing to me and that’s what I’m probably the most proud of. Like down the stretch he made some big passes. When Ebelhar hit that three in the corner, the old Brian Griffith would not have thrown that… The new one, the guy now has a little more trust in his teammates than he ever has before.”
Following the game Brian said he’s very happy to achieve such a notable accomplishment in his high school career, but has goals of winning at All-A State and State later on this season more on his mind. Riley will be happy to hear as such, as the Aces (15-1) have now won seven straight and are hoping that this tough district battle will be another step forward in their hopes of having a long postseason run in 2023.
“If we’d have lost here it wouldn’t have been the end of the world,” Riley said. “If we’d have lost by 19 it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. We just gotta continue to get better and you hope that you’re playing your best by the end of the year.”
Meanwhile, Owensboro falls to 10-6 overall and 2-1 in district play, with bad fouls and turnovers leading them to their downfall at home on Friday. Head Coach Rod Drake said after the game that his team’s ego got the best of them, as the little mistakes added up in the loss.
“We just had to push the ball and play defense,” Drake said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are full of themselves because people tell them how good they are and with that being said you’ve got people that are going to challenge you. We don’t meet the challenge sometimes so that’s what happened. When we were playing our style and moving and everything was going good it was great, but all it takes is one or two bad shots and one or two guys do something out of character against a good basketball team and it starts snowballing downhill.”
The Red Devils aren’t panicking after the loss by any means though, as they’ll look to get right back to work and are looking forward to growing as the season progresses.
“We’ve got some things going on and it’ll be great for us,” Drake said. “It’s a good eye opener for us and we just have to come back on Sunday and get ready for next week and get ready.”
