Olney Central (74) at Shawnee (77)
A highly contested game between the Blue Knights and Saints came down to the final possessions in overtime. The Saints received a boost from a hot start and eventually built a seven point lead at one point in the first half. The Blue Knights would chip away and go into the half time intermission down 35-32.
The second half would be a game of runs. The Blue Knights took a five point lead in two instances. The second instance would cause Shawnee to call a timeout. The Saints came out of the timeout hot and went on an 7-0 run to take a two point lead.
In the final minute, the Blue Knights found themselves down by 2 after a made free throw from Shawnee's Keon Jones. 6'3 Sophomore CE Talton would then make driving layup to tie the game with 4.4 seconds remaining. The Blue Knights would then get a stop at the buzzer to force overtime.
In overtime the lead would change multiple times before the score became knotted at 74 on another CE Talton layup with 34.4 seconds remaining. The Saints would call a timeout and hold the ball until the end of the shot clock before Keon Jones hit a step back three-pointer with 4.2 seconds left to take a 77-74 lead. The Blue Knights inbounded the ball to CE Talton and his running three-point shot rolled out as time expired.
The Blue Knights were led in scoring by CE Talton with a career high 27 points, 6'4 Sophomore JJ Kalakon with 11 points, and 6'5 Sophomore Cobie Montgomery with 9 points. Olney Central also held Shawnee to 36.1% shooting and 32.2% from three-point range.
The Saints were led by Ryan Gordan and Tyreon Hardin with 17 points apiece.
Olney Central (106) vs. Lewis & Clark (90)
The highest scoring game of the season for the Blue Knights took place on Saturday at "The Dungeon" against GRAC opponent Lewis & Clark.
The Blue Knights would get off to a blazing start with an emphatic and-one dunk from 6-5 sophomore Jordan Tchuente. The first five and a half minutes of the game belonged to Olney Central as they would take a 21-5 lead on a three-pointer from 6'3 Freshman Jordan Graham. In the first five and a half minutes the Blue Knights would receive scoring contributions from all five starters.
The Blue Knights would continue their hot shooting for the remainder of the half and receive a spark from 6'5 Freshman Dillon Harrison off the bench. Harrison would hit two three-pointers in the first half. The score at the halftime intermissions was 54-32 in favor of Olney Central.
The second half had a frenetic pace and both teams got into an offensive rhythm. Lewis & Clark would receive hot shooting from Kenon Dixon and the Blue Knights would continue their balanced scoring effort. The final score was 106-90.
Ten Blue Knights scored in the game led by 6'8 Sophomore Elijah Farr with 24 points, Harrison with 17 points, Cobie Montgomery with 15 points, Jordan Tchuente with 14 points, CE Talton with 10 points, and JJ Kalakon with 7 points. Tchuente would also finish with 13 rebounds for his first career double-double.
Olney Central tied their season high in assists with 22 and received an efficient night from the floor with by shooting 50.7% overall.
Head Coach Casey Wyllie on the games: "Shawnee came out and played extremely hard. They were really aggressive on the offensive glass and ended up getting a lot of second chance opportunities and we fell behind because of it. We rallied back and took the lead late in the second half but couldn't hold on. We had some costly turnovers late that really hurt and Shawnee took advantage."
(Lewis & Clark) "We played with a ton of energy to start the game. We were making shots and flying around on defense. We were able to speed Lewis and Clark up that led them to take quick shots or turn the ball over. We were much more connected in every aspect of the game today and that was really good to see."