OLNEY - It has now been two years since Olney Central Men's Basketball team has lost a game in the month of November after a 93-70 victory over Rose Hulman JV on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Knights move to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in GRAC play.
The Blue Knights were paced in scoring by 5'10 sophomore point guard Jalen Moore (25) and 6'8 freshman forward Elijah Farr (19). Moore also grabbed (4) rebounds and dished out (5) assists, while Farr grabbed (11) rebounds and had (3) assists.
Olney Central and Rose Hulman battled back and forth the whole first half. Olney Central managed to lead by as many as 15 points, but Rose Hulman found a way to battle back and only trail by 8 going into halftime (46-38).
The Blue Knights started the game on a 10-3 run which lead to a Rose Hulman Fightin' Engineer timeout at the 16:33 mark.
That timeout didn't stop the bleeding as Elijah Farr connected on back-to-back post moves to move the lead to 14-5 with 13:50 to go in the first half.
The first double digit lead (18-7) for the Blue Knights came after a transition layup by 6'4 sophomore forward Nick Walker after 6'1 freshman Cayman Hayes stole the ball at the 11:10 minute mark.
The Blue Knights 15-point lead (28-13) came at the 7:46 mark of the first half after 6'3 redshirt freshman DJ Haynes connected on a corner three assisted by Moore.
Rose Hulman's 6'7 freshman forward Vuk Djuric made a post move to make the score 28-15.
Moore drew a foul and connected on both free throws to regain the 15-point lead, but 6'9 junior forward Tim Harris made a baseline jumper to make the score 30-17.
Rose Hulman connected on a drive to the basket from 6'3 freshman Willie Bowman and Moore answered with an elbow jumper to give the Blue Knights a 32-19 lead and force a Rose Hulman timeout.
The last basket of the first half for the Blue Knights came after Walker connected on a pull up jump shot with 1:41 to go before intermission.
Rose Hulman finished the half on back-to-back makes from 6'5 freshman forward Jared Englert and 6'0 freshman guard Zach Jackson.
Rose Hulman scored the first basket of the second half after a put back by Harris to cut the lead to 6, but that was the closest the Fightin' Engineers would get.
6'3 freshman guard CE Talton connected on a pull up jumper and 6'5 freshman forward JJ Kalakon hit a transition three from the top of the key to make the score 51-40 in favor of the Blue Knights.
After that Jackson & Moore traded baskets for the next couple minutes, and Farr hit a transition three to put the Blue Knights up to a 60-47 advantage.
The Blue Knights finally broke the game wide open after Rose Hulman's Djuric fouled out at the 8:35 mark.
There were four (4) Olney Central players that scored during their run including Farr, Walker, Haynes, and 6'4 sophomore guard JT Wheeler to take 85-66 lead.
The Blue Knights held Rose Hulman scoreless for four (4) minutes until 6'5 freshman forward Terry Hicks connected on both free throws at the 4:38 mark.
The final score ended at 93-70 in favor of Olney Central.
Rounding out the scoring for the Blue Knights was Walker (8), Kalakon (8), Haynes (7), C. Hayes (7), Talton (6), Wheeler (5), 6'5 freshman forward Cobie Montgomery (5), 6'5 freshman forward Joseph Dalton (2), and 7'1 redshirt sophomore Jason Cudd (1).
Overall the Blue Knights shot 55% from the field (37-67) and 40% from deep (8-20). They connected on 11-18 free throws for 61%.
The Blue Knights were balanced on the glass as Nick Walker had (5), Kalakon (5), Moore (4), Wheeler (3), Cudd (3), Dalton (2), Haynes (2), Montgomery (2), and Talton (2).
Olney Central also had 26 total assists as a team.
Rose Hulman only shot 39% from the field (29-74) and 18% from deep (4-22). They made 8-15 free throws for 53%.
Head Coach Mike Burris on the win - "This was a good win for us after giving our guys a couple days off for Thanksgiving. Rose Hulman is very organized and are fundamentally sound. We really pushed the ball early and that got us going - we ran the floor well. We didn't allow them (Rose Hulman) to set their defense and we made a lot of nice passes after we were able to get into the lane. We had 26 total assists which was huge. We also shot the ball extremely well."
Next Game - Monday, December 2 at 6:00pm vs. Lincoln College JV