The Blue Knights overcame an early deficit and took control against #4 Vincennes. At the 8:30 mark of the first half the Blue Knights trailed by 5 (23-18). The run for Olney Central started on a baseline drive from 6'7 Freshman Shilo Bowles. He would find Cobie Montgomery cutting and dish it to him for a traditional 3-point play. Each team exchanged multiple stops for the next two minutes until Vincennes forward Nigel Martin would split a pair of free throws. On the next possession 6'3 Freshman Jordan Graham would find 6'5 Sophomore Cobie Montgomery in the left corner for a 3-pointer to knot the score at 24.
The Blue Knights would get a stop and take the lead on the next possession on a Shilo Bowles offensive rebound put back. Vincennes would score the next trip down on a layup from 6'7 Freshman Justin Archer. At the 2:45 mark, Jordan Graham would sink a pair of free throws to give Olney Central the 28-26 lead and the Blue Knights would not look back for the rest of the half. The Blue Knights went into the intermission with a 36-31 lead and made of 9-10 free throws and 5-10 3-pointers to gain the edge.
Olney Central gained momentum in the second half on a Cobie Montgomery 3-pointer with 19:18 on the clock to extend the lead to 6. Vincennes would cut the lead to 2 with 16:55 remaining on a Brandon Muntu 3-pointer and eventually tie it at the 15:15 mark on a Justin Archer finish at the rim. It was the 7th and final tie of the game. Cobie Montgomery buried a corner 3-pointer at the 14:44 mark to start the Blue Knights run. After an Olney Central steal Montgomery would get an offensive rebound and fouled on his put back attempt. He sank both free throws to make the score 46-41. The Blue Knights would force another turnover and Montgomery scored again, this time on a huge dunk off his own drive. Vincennes called a timeout at the 13:43 mark.
Out of the timeout the Blue Knights would get a stop and force a shooting foul off a pass from 6'2 Freshman Tahj Patterson to 6'3 Sophomore CE Talton. Talton would make both free throws to extend the lead to 9 points (50-41). Both teams would go back and forth for much of the 2nd half. Freshman guards Tahj Patterson and Jordan Graham both made momentum changing 3-pointers for the Blue Knights. Vincennes would battle back to cut the lead to 4 with under a minute left before 6'8 Sophomore Elijah Farr made a hook shot in the lane to extend the lead to 6. with 53 seconds remaining. Vincennes would not score the rest of the game and Olney Central would convert free throws to win 79-70.
The Blue Knights were led in the scoring column by Montgomery (22), Farr (20), Graham (14), and Talton (10). Farr also had 13 rebounds and as a team Olney Central won the rebounding margin by 33-32.
The Blue Knights received a spark from their entire bench and 6'5 Sophomore JJ Kalakon contributed 8 rebounds and 5 assists in the effort. As a team Olney Central shot 43.5% from the floor, 10-20 from 3 for 50%, and 29-39 from the free throw line for 74.4%.
The Trail Blazers were led by Jaidon Hunter with 14 points, Justin Archer with 13 points, and Brandon Muntu with 11 points. Vincennes struggled from the field only shooting 36.4%.
Olney Central has beat Vincennes in four of the last five meetings and won each of the last three.
Head Coach Casey Wyllie on the game: "This is a huge win for us. I'm so incredibly proud of our guys. The guys really played well. The guys defended and battled inside the entire game. This was a total team effort. We were connected for forty minutes."