By Todd Lancaster, Sports Editor
They say tournament time is the time to start to play your best basketball.
And that is exactly the way the Washington Catholic Cardinals are going into the North Daviess Sectional — playing their best basketball.
The Cardinals capped off the regular season with a 51-48 overtime victory over North Knox in the Birdcage. With the win, WC moves to 7-14 and have now won three out of four games, including the last two in overtime.
WC not only was able to find the big baskets when they needed them, they were also able to clamp down on defense.
“At the end of the game in the huddle, our kids said they wanted to go man-to-man with them on defense,” said WC coach Bill Brown. “We got some really big stops. I want a team that can defend man-to-man.”
“We have put ourselves in positions to win in the last four games and we got three of the four. We have proven we can play.”
The Cardinals were again led by Austin Jarrett who matched his season average with 22 points, but it was also those around him who were a big part of the win.
Junior center Harrison Holmes had 11 rebounds in the game and eight points, including 4-4 from the free throw line and one very big bucket during crunch time. Jon Costello added 11 points and nine assists, while Adam Joyce had a solid 31 minutes of action, also including 3-4 from the free throw line late in the game. Austin Deem added five points, while senior Tyson Goodwin and sophomore Matt Stuart also provided minutes.
“We challenged Harrison before the game. We told him that he has averaged 10 points and nine rebounds a game in conference and just go out there and play that type of game. He played a heck of the game.” added Brown. “Jon played a great floor game again, Adam Joyce played a lot of minutes and played well, Matt Stuart played well when he was in there.”
The Cardinals found themselves down 12-8 at the end of the first quarter. Richard Gugliotta drained three trey in the fist quarter, accounting for the Warrior lead. WC got six points from Jarrett in the second and was able to reverse the tables with a 12-8 run of its own to tie the game at 20 at the half.
The game remained close in the third, but it was a five points from Deem that sparked WC back to a 28-25 lead and eventually a 31-27 lead at the end of the quarter.
But just like every other part of the game, no lead was safe.
North Knox went from being down by four to up by two with 6:30 left in the game. Costello hit a trey to get WC back within one.
Jarrett hit the next four points to go up, 38-37. Holmes stepped up with the final four points of the quarter, but a late, traditional 3-point play from Brolin Summers tied the game at 42 and sent it into OT. Summers ended the night with 11 points and was second behind Gugliotta’s 25.
WC never trailed during the OT, as Jarrett had three, Joyce, Costello and Holmes had two each, but North Knox did get as close as 49-48 with :28 to play, after Gugliotta hit his fourth trey of the night. However, with a 3-point lead Costello hauled in a rebound to close out the game for WC.
It was also Senior night for Goodwin and Costello.
“Jon has been a big part of what we have been doing this season,” said Brown. “Tyson works hard every day for us.”
The Cards move on to face Vincennes Rivet in the second game at sectional on Tuesday at North Daviess.
NK won the JV game, 42-34. Deem led with seven, Dane Baxter had six, while Joyce and Stuart had five each.
