OLNEY - The Olney Central Blue Knights basketball team won two games over the weekend in the OCC Classic against Clark State & Illinois Valley to improve to 5-0
Olney Central (90) Clark State (70) - Friday, November 8
OCC held a 40-30 advantage over Clark State at the intermission and made 20-23 free throws in the second half to hold off the Eagles. The Blue Knights connected on 30-34 free throws for 88 percent on the game while Clark State made 8-14 for 57 percent.
Overall OCC was 27-62 from the field for 44% and 6-29 from deep for 21%.
The Blue Knights were lead in scoring by 5'10 sophomore point guard Jalen Moore with 22 points which included him going 13-13 from the foul line. Moore also finished with 6 assists and two steals.
Two other Blue Knights found double digit scoring totals in 6'5 freshman forward JJ Kalakon with 13 & 6'8 freshman forward Elijah Farr with 11. Kalakon finished with 9 rebounds and Farr had 3.
6'4 sophomore foward Nick Walker and 6'3 redshirt-freshman DJ Haynes both finished with 8 points. Walker had 5 rebounds and Haynes had 2.
6'3 freshman guard CE Talton finished with 7 points & 2 rebounds, while 6'1 freshman guards Cayman & Tucker Hayes each had 6 points.
6'6 freshman forward Jordan Tchuente finished with 3 points & 2 rebounds.
Rounding out the scoring with 2 a piece for the Blue Kights was 6'3 sophomore guard JT Wheeler, 7'1 redshirt-sophomore Jason Cudd, & 6'5 freshman forward Joseph Dalton.
Olney Central (80) Illinois Valley (60) - Saturday, November 9
OCC & IVCC both started off slow on the offensive end. The Eagles first bucket came from 6'1 sophomore guard Jacarr Boone at the 16:42 mark, while the Blue Knights didn't see their first bucket until 5'10 sophomore point guard Jalen Moore connected on an and-1 from 6'5 freshman forward JJ Kalakon at the 15:27 minute mark.
The Blue Knights saw a 16-0 run start at the 10:05 mark of the first half after 6'1 freshman point guard Cayman Hayes knocked down a three pointer from the top of the key on a pass from 6'8 sophomore Elijah Farr.
After Hayes' three, 6'4 sophomore forward Nick Walker followed with a lay up, and then Hayes followed suit with a drive to basket of his own.
Kalakon then made a crafty post move that forced an Illinois Valley timeout.
The timeout called by IVCC couldn't stop the bleeding as Kalakon again connected on a layup on the back side of the IVCC zone defense from Walker. Farr followed that with a layup and Moore followed with two of his five free throws.
Illinois Valley's answer came at the 3:54 mark on a post move by Boone.
OCC went into halftime leading 38-24.
The beginning of the second half saw the Blue Knights and Eagles trading buckets until the 9:01 minute mark when Kalakon went on a 6-0 scoring run that included four of his five three throws and an assisted layup by Moore. This put the Blue Knights up 59-39 and they never looked back.
The Blue Knights had three players in double digits led by Moore (14), Kalakon (13) , and 6'3 freshman guard CE Talton (10). Hayes finished the game with 9, sophomores JT Wheeler & Nick Walker had 7 a piece.
6'5 freshman forward Cobie Montgomery, 6'1 freshman guard Tucker Hayes, and Farr had 6 a piece. Farr also led the Blue Knights in rebounds with 14 including 6 on the offensive end.
6'6 freshman forward Jordan Tchuente and 6'3 redshirt-freshman DJ Haynes each finished with 1 point each.
The Blue Knights connected on 29-67 from the field for 43 percent including 7-28 from three for 25 percent. They also made 15-23 free throws for 65 percent.
Illinois Valley connected on 19-56 from the field for 34 percent and 8-28 from three for 29 percent. They made 15-21 free throws for 71 percent.
Head Coach Mike Burris on the weekend - "We continue to get it done on the defensive end. We are starting to limit our opponents to one and done shot opportunities unlike the first few games where we gave them too many second chances. We are starting to become more connected on defense and that is allowing us to get out and run in transition to get some easy baskets. We are looking forward to putting a great amount of detail this week in practice as we prepare for our first conference opponent. Thanks again to everyone who came out to support us this past weekend."
Next Game - Wednesday, November 20 @ Wabash Valley 7:30pm