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Chris Evans
Posted Feb 14, 2009
El Reno - Valentine's Day turned out to be just lovely for the top ranked Guthrie BlueJays as they captured the Suburban Conference Championship with a 48-34 win over third ranked Carl Albert, inside Jenks Simmons Field House, in El Reno.
Guthrie improves to 18-2 and avenges a loss suffered on their home court to the Titans just two days ago. Carl Albert drops to 17-4 with two of those losses now coming to the hands of the Jays. Both teams will host regionals and are the top two seeds in the West.
Senior guard Matt Hamilton was the spark plug for the Jays in the first quarter by scoring five of his 9 game points. Fellow senior guard Donte Foster was the only other Jay to score in the opening period by adding four points.
Carl Albert elected to back off and dared Hamilton to shoot and shoot he did. Hamilton drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 6-all and 1:18 later hit a jump shot to give the Jays their first lead of the game, 8-6 and would never trail again. In Thursday's game their was 17 lead changes, but Saturday there was just three.
Guthrie held a 9-8 first quarter lead, but Titan Harrison Dupont tied the game, at 11-11, on a bucket and foul, but Hamilton's field goal 7:12 before the half gave the Jays the lead for good. The basket also began a 9-0 run in the next 1:57 resulting in a Titan time-out. The run's highlight was an assistant from senior Keaton Callins from the top of the key to Foster for a lay-up.
Both teams from that point added 8-points each and the Jays went into the locker room up nine, 28-19.
Carl Albert outscored the Jays in just one of the four quarters on the evening and came in the third quarter (8-6). The Titans began and end the quarter on 4-0 runs. Guthrie got a bank shot from Foster in the paint, who was fouled and finished the 3-point play. Callins added a 3-pointer as the Jays found him wide open on the left wing.
The Jays held their own in the quarter without the services of Foster for over half of the period. Foster picked up his third foul with 4:49 to play and had to go to the bench. Senior William Bohannon and freshmen Codee Gross gave the Jays quality minutes.
Foster checked back into the line-up to begin the final period and then the Jays open the game wide open by starting out on a 6-0 run in the first 2:36 of the final frame to push the lead up to 13, 40-27. Carl Albert would respond with a 5-2 run of their own to pull back within 10. However, Carl Albert was just able to get within 9-points the rest of the way as Guthrie finished the game on a 5-0 run with three of those going from the free throw line.
Foster finished with a team high 13 points and followed closely by Callins 12, but Hamilton's 9 points proved to be the big lift for the Jays winning their first conference championship while playing in the last two title games since the inception of the Super Saturday and conference championship last year.
Guthrie will finish the regular season with Senior Night, on Tuesday, when Noble comes to town before heading to Shawnee, on Friday. The Jays and El Reno may rescheduled their postponed game from last week to, Monday, February 23rd. An official announcement should come soon.
Follow the Jays from here on out on the Triple Play Sports Radio Network (105.1 FM) and Guthrie Sports Page for each and every ball game.
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