The Daviess County Panthers can now show off nine landslide victories after their most recent game on Friday. They blew past Apollo 49-27. Given Daviess County's advantage in MaxPreps' Kentucky basketball rankings (they are ranked 29th, while Apollo is ranked 187th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Lily Hoagland continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 14 points. Another player making a difference was Zoey Beehn, who scored eight points along with two steals.
Apollo's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Jenna Dant, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Mattingly Taylor who scored four points along with five rebounds. That was a full 51.9% of Apollo's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Jennifer Lee, who's played more minutes than anyone else on the Eagles squad sat out for Friday's matchup. With Lee sidelined, Apollo had to make some big changes to the lineup. Three players got more time on the court than they're used to: Taylor (12), Maleah Mcbride (26), and Avery Edge (27). The trio had averaged 4.11, 11.14, and 13.36 minutes respectively before Friday's contest. Taylor made the most of the opportunity, scoring four points along with five rebounds. A few more games like that and she might be seeing even more time going forward.
Apollo struggled to work together and finished the game with only two assists. They are winless (0-3) when they just don't pass the ball.
Daviess County has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matches, which provided a nice bump to their 17-6 record this season. As for Apollo, they dropped their record down to 5-18 with that loss, which was their third straight at home.
Daviess County won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against McCracken County at 2:30 p.m. on February 10th. McCracken County will roll in looking for their fifth straight victory, something Daviess County surely won't give up without a fight. As for Apollo, they will head out on the road to challenge Edmonson County at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.