.gif)
|
|
|||||||||||||||
By: Chris Evans
Piedmont - The old saying that we all hear all the time is that games are not won on paper, but are won on the court or field, but perhaps Friday night inside Piedmont High School's Collette's Field House this game would be the exception.
The Piedmont Wildcat basketball team had zero seniors on their roster, two juniors, and the rest of the roster was filled out with sophomore's and freshmen including two starting freshmen and three starting sophomore's.
That is not quite the formula any coach would want to have when going up against an undefeated and talented Guthrie Bluejays basketball squad. However, George Wagner's young Wildcats played tough and made it ragged on the Jays at times, but Guthrie proved to be to big, to strong, and to good with a 58-33 win to improve to 5-0 on the year.
Class 5A's sixth ranked Bluejays jumped out to a 5-0 lead with a Matt Hamilton trey and a Kent McDonald field goal in the first 4:33 of the game. Piedmont would score a bucket 31 seconds later, but Guthrie would then go on a 8-0 run in the next two minutes.
The Jays would build up a 12 point advantage, but an old fashion three point play for Piedmont would end the quarter with Guthrie leading 17-8.
The Bluejays were slowed down offensively in the second quarter by scoring just eight points, but holding Piedmont to just four second quarter points. Piedmont played a 2-3 zone throughout the night knowing they were out manned by the far more superior and athletic Bluejay team. The Jays were forced to be patient in working against the stingy Piedmont zone defense.
Guthrie would get a spark from McDonald in the third quarter by scoring eight of his 12 points including six point in a row to take the score from 29-18 to 35-18. McDonald was able to drive the baseline and get to the glass.
The Jays would build leads as high as 17 points in the quarter and was comfortably ahead 41-24 at the end of three quarters.
Guthrie would go ahead as many as 27 points before winning by 25 and were led by junior guard Donte' Foster with 21 points and a nice left handed dunk while coming down the lane on the right side for a rim shaker. Going into the Piedmont game, Foster was averaging 22 points a contest.
Other Bluejays contributing on the scoreboard were Keaton Callins with six, Kentrell Brothers and Jonathan Washington added four, Hamilton with three points, and Ashton Morgan, Clayton Smith, and Adam Smith with two points each. Piedmont received nine points from sophomore Dale Staley.
The Bluejays will now move their attention to the Stillwater Pioneers, who come to town on Tuesday with revenge on their minds. Guthrie defeated Stillwater, on December 14th, 71-64 in Guthrie's first game of the season. Stillwater, ranked 17th in Class 6A, will bring talented and sharp shooting Jamell Cormier to the Guthrie High School gymnasium.
The Guthrie-Stillwater game can be heard on Guthrie's new radio home for Bluejay athletics, Triple Play Sports 105.1FM, with a pre-game show immediately following the girls game.
For player interviews (Matt Hamilton and Kent McDonald) please visit the podcast page. Also, on the podcast page hear from Guthrie head coach Pete Papahronis on his teams performance against the Wildcats.
|
This website and Evans Sports LLC is an unofficial and independent source of news and information, and is not affiliated with any school, team, or league.