Olney Central (71) SWIC (75) - Thursday, February 18th
The Blue Knights travelled to Belleville, IL to face off against SWIC for their fourth GRAC game of the season.
Both teams struggled to score early as the Blue Knights trailed 11-10 with 11:50 remaining in the first half. Olney Central's run would start on a three-pointer from 6'1 Sophomore Tucker Hayes off of a pass from 6'8 Sophomore Elijah Farr. SWIC would push the ball and get a look at the basket that was blocked by 6'6 Sophomore Jordan Tchuente. Tchuente would then score on the other end off of a pass from Freshman Jordan Graham to make the score 15-11 and force a SWIC timeout at the 11:04 mark.
Coming out of the timeout SWIC would score on a set play that led to a made layup by Noah Courtney. The Blue Knights responded on the other end off of a made three-pointer from Jordan Tchuente. After an offensive foul by SWIC the Blue Knights would score again from an Elijah Farr drive and layup to make the score 20-13 and cap off an 11-2 run.
SWIC would respond with a 4-0 run before Sophomore Cobie Montgomery connected on a three-pointer with 9:17 remaining in the first half. The score was then 23-17 in favor of the Blue Knights.
Both teams would exchange baskets for the remainder of the half. Olney Central would go into the half with a 35-30 lead.
On the first possession of the second half, Olney Central would force a turnover that led to a transition layup by Sophomore CE Talton. After a pair of made free throws by Adonis Humphreys for SWIC the Blue Knights would take their largest lead of the game on a made three-pointer by Jordan Graham to make it 40-32 in favor of the Blue Knights.
From there SWIC would go on an 13-3 run to take a 45-43 lead with 13:26 remaining. Both teams would fight and exchange baskets for the majority of the half before SWIC took a 69-60 lead with 2:37 remaining.
The Blue Knights would battle and respond with a 6-0 run to make it 69-66 with 1:48 remaining. That was the closest they would get before Lamarius Lillard made a fadeaway three-pointer to beat the shot clock on the other end.
The final score was 75-71. The Blue Knights were led in scoring by Elijah Farr (21), Jordan Tchuente (18), and Cobie Montgomery (11). As a team Olney Central shot 49.1% from the floor and 50% from beyond the three-point line but had 17 turnovers.
Olney Central (86) Wabash Valley (69) - Saturday, February 20th
The Blue Knights recovered from their road letdown against SWIC with a strong second half performance against Wabash Valley in "The Dungeon".
The Blue Knights went into the halftime intermission trailing 35-34 but responded with a 52 point second half. Olney Central was led by Elijah Farr with 22 points and 10 rebounds. They also received strong scoring contributions from Cobie Montgomery with 17 points and Tahj Patterson with 11 points.
As a team, Olney Central was very efficient shooting the ball across the board as they finished 50% overall (31-62), 42.9% from three-point range (9-21), and 78.9% from the free throw line (15-19). The Blue Knights dominated the turnover battle as they only had 6 to Wabash Valley's 16.
Olney Central plays Rend Lake at home Monday, February 22nd at 6:00 PM.
Head Coach Casey Wyllie on the games: "It is tough to win on the road in the GRAC. I thought SWIC made a few more plays than we did down the stretch and we couldn't overcome it. I give SWIC credit."
"I'm really proud of our guys and how we responded against Wabash after losing at SWIC. We played with energy and were connected the entire second half which is what ultimately led to us winning the game. We got stops and then pushed it in transition for easy baskets."