Owensboro celebrated Head Coach Rod Drake’s 250th career win in style on Friday, putting on a dominant display on both ends of the floor in a 65-39 district win over the Eagles at home.
The Red Devils came out of the gates on fire, holding Apollo to single digits in the quarter while getting nine points from freshman Jonathan Moss en route to an 18-2 lead following the first. The Eagles were held to single digits in the second quarter as well, finding themselves trailing Owensboro 34-11 at halftime.
Senior Talas Taylor helped the Red Devils stay hot coming out of the locker room also, knocking down three from deep and finishing with 11 points in the quarter to help take a 49-27 lead at the end of the third. Apollo’s luck didn’t change in the fourth either, as they were outscored once again and ultimately fell 65-39.
Senior Zjhan Tutt and sophomore Kobe Kelly were the only Eagles to finish in double figures, putting up 16 and 10 points respectively. Moss led Owensboro with 16 points, while senior Ji Webb added 12, Taylor added 11 and senior Kenyatta Carbon added eight points.
Following the win Drake said that they’ve been able to have some quality practices this week and that it carried into the Red Devils game today. This late in the season he said that their time outside of games is crucial and he hopes to see this trend continue to help them improve.
“Practice is the best time for these guys right now,” Drake said. “We can do maintenance work. We get to do do-overs. In the ballgame if you do the wrong thing I’m taking you out, so we had a good week of practice. They bought into it, so I hope they continue to get better at that.”
It was a celebratory night for Owensboro, grabbing the win while also recognizing Drake for his 250th win that he earned in December prior to the game. The former Kentucky Wesleyan star is now the third winningest boys basketball coach for the Red Devils program, passing Lawrence McGinnis.
The 2022-23 campaign is Drake’s 15th season as head coach, having won three regional championships and a state championship during his tenure. Rod also won two regional championships and a state championship as a player before graduating in 1980.
Drake was surprised with the honor of a plaque commemorating the milestone prior to the district matchup and after the game made it known that it was the players and Owensboro staff around him that have given him the opportunity to have success at the helm of the Red Devils.
“I’ve got probably the best coaching staff in the state,” Drake said. “I’ve been fortunate to coach quality players and good young men. Our school administrators have stuck by us through some lean times, so I’ve just been blessed to be in a good situation.”
Owensboro sits at 14-7 and 4-1 in district play following the win, now coming up on a tough week starting with a road matchup against Bowling Green at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. With a chance for revenge and an equal 5-1 district record against Owensboro Catholic following that game, Drake wants his team to continue to improve and let a tough late season stretch hopefully bring the best out of them.
“We just have to get better,” Drake said. “We could very easily go 0-4 these next couple of weeks, or we can go 4-0. Regardless, we’re playing quality teams going into the district tournament. That’s what it was planned to be. We didn’t know all the staff and roster moves we were going to have, but it was planned this way because I figured we’d be playing our best basketball at the end of the year. It kind of worked out perfectly for us.”
Apollo on the other hand falls to 4-18 overall and 0-5 in district play, as they’ll look to turn things around Saturday on the road against Logan County at 5 p.m.
