3rd Region Hoops— we’re headed down the home stretch of basketball across the state and tonight is a big night around the region. In the 11th District Meade Co travels to Hancock Co in a boy/girl double-header. Meade won the first meeting by a wide margin when the two teams met in Brandenburg. Tonight’s matchups, notably on the girls side has became a lot more intriguing due to the season ending injury of Peyton Bradley this week. An already thin roster just became a lot more thin & now the Lady Wave & HC Dina Hackert have to find a way to make up for the 23ppg & 6rpg that came by way of Bradley. How does the team respond to the devastating news?

In the 12th, Grayson County travels to Butler County for a huge district matchup in BOTH matchups. Seed implications are on the line tonight & neither team wants to lose this one. Can Butler County keep their foot on the gas and all but take full control of the district in the GIRLS game? Can the young guns of Grayson County make it a ball game with Ty Price, Lawson Rice & the high powered Bears? 3RH will have staff on hand for this one & we can’t wait to get there. The atmosphere will be electric.

Now to our featured game of the week. Daviess County invades the Mecca of the 3rd Region to take on Owensboro Catholic in a big time 9th district doubleheader! Let’s preview the games starting on the GIRLS Side!

Daviess Co VS Owensboro Catholic:

Team Records- Daviess Co (16-5, 2-2). O’Cath (16-4, 3-1)

Last Meeting- O’Cath won 78-52 on December 15th @ Daviess County

Key Players-

Hailee Johnson (O’Cath) – 15ppg, 6rpg

Karmin Riley (O’Cath) – 12ppg

Delaney Cooper (O’Cath) – 10ppg, 5rpg.

Kennedy Lane (Daviess) – 17ppg

Lily Hoagland (Daviess) – 15ppg,

Zoey Beehn (Daviess) – 10ppg, 10rpg

Game Lines (According to Ky_Lines) –

Owensboro Catholic -16

3RH Thoughts-

Two of the regions top 4 teams square off on the 3rd Regions biggest stage; the Owensboro Sportscenter. O’Cath is DESPERATE to win out VS DC & OHS (next week) to secure the #1 seed. The Lady Aces are the prohibited favorites tonight & are to win the district as well. In the first meeting, Lady Panthers Junior forward Zoey Beehn didn’t play due to illness. In that game, O’Cath was in control of the game from the start, though only led by 10 at halftime. With Beehn playing tonight, this game could be a lot more competitive. Perhaps the biggest question of the night is how does DC head coach Natalie Payne insert newly cleared Jaycee Noffsinger. Noffsinger provides depth & is an excellent rebounder at the guard position. Noffsinger will be a big help to Zoey Beehn in trying to keep O’Cath’s Jenna Krampe, Aubrey Randolph & Delaney Cooper off the glass. With an upset tonight, DC can make things really interesting & could boost an already rejuvenated program one step further. With an O’Cath win, HC Michael Robertson is one step closer to securing that top seed in the district gauntlet.

BOYS-

Daviess County VS Owensboro Catholic.

Team Records: Daviess Co (17-4, 3-1). Owensboro Catholic (14-4, 2-2)

Last Meeting: Daviess Co defeated O’Cath 61-46 on December 15th @ Daviess County.

Key Players:

Jonathan Moss (Daviess) 16ppg

Gage Phelps (Daviess) 16ppg, 4rpg

DeAaron Watkins (Daviess) 13ppg, 7rpg

Luke Beickman (O’Cath) 20ppg, 7rpg

Tutt Carrico (O’Cath) 11ppg, 9rpg

Solly Smith (O’Cath) 11ppg

Game Lines (According to Ky_Lines):

Owensboro Catholic -7

3RH Thoughts:

Both these teams have essentially backed themselves into a corner. O’Cath’s early season loss to Apollo really hurt them & has led to them playing catch up in the district. Daviess County looked to be in the driver seat of the district and then collapsed VS Owensboro in the 2nd half. Now, in a district where NEITHER OF OHS, O’Cath or Daviess want to play each other in the opening round of the district tournament, this game is HUGE! If Daviess Co wins tonight, and assuming they defeat Apollo next week, they’ll lock the #1 seed in and guarantee themselves a trip to the regional tournament. IF O’Cath wins, they’d be setting really, really good going into their final district game VS OHS next week. This Aces ball club is a totally different team than when these two first met. Luke Beickman was playing through an injury on his shooting hand, that game was Solly Smiths first game at the varsity level and several key pieces were trying to get in “basketball mode.” In saying that, we’re not trying to discredit Daviess County’s win. They dominated that game & Jonathon Moss was exceptional in that meeting & has played exceptional over the last month of the season. Just like in the girls game, this game features 2 of the top 4 teams in the region. Both these teams NEED this game tonight. Can The Aces get enough production from everyone NOT NAMED Luke Beickman to defeat the high scoring Panthers? Can the DC offense put points on the board in bunches against the gritty defense of Tim Riley?

PEP MANIA—

1 of the first 25 students from either school will win 2 tickets to the KWC/Cedarville game next Saturday. Upon entry, students will be given a raffle ticket & the winning ticket will be announced during the 2nd half of the BOYS game! Stay, be loud & make your case for the best student section in the region!