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By: Chris Evans
The Guthrie Bluejays stormed out to a 8-0 lead in the game's first 2:41 with 10th ranked El Reno, but the way the first period appeared to end had Guthrie fans, coaches, and players holding their breath and post season hopes.
Junior stand-out Donte' Foster made a steal at mid court with :03 in the first quarter and sprinted toward the hoop and went up for a buzzer beating dunk. Foster would miss the dunk, however, was fouled in the process and went crashing down to the court resulting in Foster holding his right knee in pain.
Foster remained on the court for a couple of minutes before returning back to the line up several minutes later in the second quarter and finished the game with 14 points as Guthrie cruised by the Indians 66-47.
Early word on Foster was that he has a sprained knee and is expected to play in Harrah according to the Guthrie coaching staff.
Guthrie improves to 8-0 on the season, 3-0 in the Suburban Conference, and remains the No. 2 team in Class 5A with Tuesday's latest rankings. El Reno drops to 10-4 overall and 5-2 in conference play.
El Reno would outscore the Jays 9-6 in the first quarters final 4:38, but Guthrie had a 14-9 lead. In the same quarter, El Reno's best player in junior forward Fayzon Richey received a technical foul, at :35 mark, for unsportsmanlike behavior toward an official and was sat down for the remainder of the game by El Reno coach Rodney Haydon.
The Indians would come out on a 5-0 run in the second quarter's first 1:47 with a trey and field goal to tie the game at 14-all, but the Jays would then go a 12-0 run in the next 3:10 to open up the game, 26-14, and would go in at the half leading 28-17.
Guthrie shot a whopping 48% in the first half on 11 of 23 shooting. Meanwhile, El Reno shot just 22% by shooting 6-27 and both teams took care of the basketball with just four turnovers each in the half.
Guthrie would score 19 third quarter points, but was not able to separate from El Reno as the Indians added 16 points. The Bluejays built up their biggest lead of the night in the quarter when junior guard Keaton Callins hit a shot to send the Jays up 47-29. El Reno would score four points in a row to end the quarter with a score of 47-33.
The fourth quarter would be lackluster as the Jays built up a lead as much as 21 points and the game was wrapped up with the final score being the only item left to be named.
In the quarter, sophomore BJ McDonald netted nine points in the quarter off the bench with his best game of his young career as a Jay. Also, playing big on the night was fellow sophomore Devon Hall. The Bluejay bench continues to play well by scoring 31 points in the win.
Despite getting a nice road win inside the conference, the one negative spot for the Bluejays was their performance from the free throw line. Guthrie finished just 5-16 for 31% from the charity stripe. El Reno, however, shot 70% by going 14-20.
Hall would only score two points on the night, but showed he could be a physical force down low for head coach Pete Papahronis and in high school basketball that is a must have presence.
The second ranked Jays must hit the road again, this Friday, when they travel to fifth ranked Harrah for another key conference game. Guthrie enters 3-0 and Harrah enters 5-0 in the conference and very well could be a preview of the conference championship game later in February.
The Guthrie-Harrah game is a make up game from earlier this season due to weather. The game will be broadcasted on Triple Play Sports 105.1 FM starting with the Lady Jays at 6:00 p.m.
For game quotes and interviews please visit the podcast page for assistant coach Adrian Davis along with sophomores BJ McDonald and Devon Hall.