 |
|||||||||||||||
|
By: Hope Hayes
It says in the dictionary that a wolf is a fierce and destructive animal. The Shawnee Wolves may have been fierce at times, but by no means were they destructive. A letter of complaint to Webster’s may be warranted, and booking Donte’ Foster, Kent McDonald, and Keaton Callins a first class flight to prove it’s true. The Guthrie Bluejays beat the Shawnee Wolves 70-53, and improved Guthrie’s regular season record to 17-4.
Friday night was Senior Night 2008 inside Guthrie High School’s Gymnasium. Guthrie honored three seniors, Adam Smith, Kent McDonald, and Jon Washington. It wasn’t their last home game in Guthrie with regionals next week on Friday and Saturday night. The Bluejays will take on the Duncan Demons in a must win game Friday night to continue their season.
Kent McDonald scored 18 points and was just shy of a double double with nine rebounds and was awarded player of the game. You can hear McDonald's post game interview and what he had to say about the victory on the podcast page. Smith added two points and Washington posted five points.
Of course, junior Donte’ Foster had a huge game like he always does with a whooping 24 points. Junior Keaton Callins had a great game himself with 13 points.
In the first quarter Guthrie would jump out by scoring the first nine points of the game, while Shawnee was left hanging with nothing. At the end of the quarter, Guthrie led by eight points, 17-9. The Jays shot 60% from the field while Shawnee could manage just 20% on 3-15 shooting.
In the second quarter , Shawnee pulled within a close reach of taking the lead, by making three three-pointers to close within one point, 19-18 and thanks in part to a 9-2 run. Although it looked like the Wolves could tie the game up the Jays would lead all night and would never look back. Guthrie would go up by 11 points going into the locker room 32-21.
The Jays would go ahead as many as 15 points, 42-27, but could only manage an eight point lead at the end of the third quarter, 44-36, despite a little bit of controversy. Callins hit a three pointer that he seemed to get off in time of the third quarter buzzer, but the shot was called off by the official on the other side of the floor.
In the fourth quarter, Guthrie scored 16 points and Shawnee added 17. The Wolves could have made it a much closer game. Guthrie had 21 fouls on the night, but Shawnee could not find the groove of shooting free throws by going 8-19 from the line. Shawnee committed 14 fouls against the Jays and Guthrie responded by making 19 of 28 of their free throws.
Guthrie shot 53% on the entire night from the field, while Shawnee was a disappointing 38%.
Guthrie will play Duncan Friday night at GHS with an 8 pm start time. The Jays must win their game, with Duncan, on Friday to continue what many hope is a state tournament run.
For post game thoughts from head coach Pete Papahronis please visit the podcast page.
Triple Play Sports 105.1 FM will carry the Bluejays playoff action, as well as the Lady Jays and can be heard on Guthrie Sports Page with Chris Evans, Casey Porter, Shawn Ingle, and Chris LeGrande.