The opening day of the tournament at Apollo we played Owensboro. We were both undefeated going into the game but Owensboro pulled out a 57-54 win. We got off to a good start and led 15-10 at the end of the 1st quarter but we couldn't sustain it and the game was tied 31 all at the half. Owensboro outscored us 13-11 and 13-12 in the 3rd and 4th quarters to get the 3 point win.
For the game we shot 15-36 from the field for 42% and 19-27 from the line for 70%. Owensboro shot 22-46 for 48% and 10-21 from the line for 48%. We committed 8 turnovers to Owensboro's 10 but the difference in the game was rebounding. Owensboro out rebounded us 31-17 on the night including 15 offensive boards and 3 of those came on missed free throws in the 4th quarter.
Travis Johnston scored 19 points and Wes Smith 17. We were led by Aaron Deviney with 7 rebounds.
Game 2 of the tournament we played Seneca out of Louisville. We lost our second game in a row by the score of 77-71 in double overtime. We did not play very well in the first half and were down 34-26 at the break. We committed 17 turnovers in the first half. We played much better in the second half and led by 4 with 1:30 to play. We were unable to hit some key free throws and committed a few turnovers against Seneca's pressure but we had a chance to win it at the buzzer but Travis Johnston's shot was not good.
In the first overtime we had Bennett Skaggs and Seth Bratcher foul out but were still able to take the last shot again but this time Lance Buckler's jumper was just short. In the second overtime, Wes Smith fouled out and we were unable to pull out the win.
For the game we shot 23-53 for 43% and 22-28 from the line for 79%. Seneca shot 27-60 from the field for 45% and 15-24 from the line for 63%. Seneca pulled down 29 rebounds to our 28 and we committed 25 turnovers to Seneca's 23.
Seth Bratcher played his best game of the season by scoring 17 points off the bench. He was chosen Player of the Game. Travis Johnston and Wes Smith were the other 2 double figure scorers with 18 and 14 respectively. Travis and Bennett Skaggs tied for the rebounding lead with 5 a piece.
Game 3 was against North Hardin. We played our best defense of the year in beating North Hardin 57-33. We shot 14-40 for 35% but hit 24-29 free throws for 83%. North Hardin shot 8-34 from the field for 24% and 16-23 from the line for 70%. North Hardin had 27 rebounds to our 20 and also committed 17 turnovers while we committed 5.
Travis Johnston scored 22 to lead us and Wes Smith contributed 12. Tyler Saltsman, Bennett Skaggs and Seth Bratcher led us with 4 rebounds a piece.
The final game of the tournament was against Holy Cross and we won by the score of 69-59. We shot 25-57 for 44% and made 15-19 free throws for 79%. Holy Cross hit 20-42 from the field for 48% and 14-16 from the line for 88%. The difference in the game was our offensive rebounding. We pulled down 11 offensive rebounds for 12 second chance points and only allowed Holy Cross 2 offensive rebounds. We committed 5 turnovers to Holy Cross' 8.
Our leading rebounder was Aaron Deviney with 9 and he also scored 11 points to be named the Player of the Game on the radio. Bennett Skaggs was named the player of the game by the National Guard by scoring 18 points and hitting 12-12 from the line. Travis Johnston also scored 18 points and had 6 rebounds.
We finished 2-2 in a very competitive tournament which was good for 5th place. Owensboro won the tournament by defeating Moore of Louisville 75-72 and Apollo placed 3rd by defeating Seneca 71-70.
