Friday a “must-win” after Archer City loss

OLNEY — Following Tuesday’s 56-41 loss to Archer City, Olney High School is now in what Coach Carl Pennington described as a must-win game against Seymour.

After Tuesday’s loss the Cubs’ record fell to 1-1 in district play, which means Olney must make for lost ground Friday against Seymour.

“We not out of the playoff race, but you have to win your games at home,” Pennington said. “Now, this puts us in a bind where Seymour is a kind of a must-win for us. We know we have a tough week ahead of us next week at Electra and Petrolia. They are at the top of our district.”

The Cubs played from behind for most of Tuesday night’s game against rival Archer City. After going into halftime down by six, the Cubs rallied back to pull themselves within a basket  after sophomore forward Parker Mayer, who led Olney in scoring with 13 points, went on a 5-point scoring tear with a majority of those scores coming off put-backs from under the basket. Mayer’s production came as a welcome relief for the Cubs, who may be without senior standout forward Travis Hudson after he suffered a knee injury during while playing in a tournament in Graford.

“Parker has come a long way,” Pennington said. “He rebounds and does what we need him to do. Once he can get to the goal, he is going to be a force. Right now, we’re a big-man down. Losing Travis hurts us. It takes away one of our best athletes and best rebounders. It hurts, but Parker and Eli (Johnson, senior post) have both done a good job of rebounding. Now, if we can get them to finish around the goal more, then both of them can average 10 or 15 points per game. We’re going to get them shots.”

The Cubs kept it close for most of the game, until the third quarter when Archer City senior Darek Simmons got hot in the second and third quarter, picking up a bulk of his team-leading 22 points. The Wildcats managed to distance themselves in the third quarter with 3-pointers, which Pennington said is common.

“We got away from our gameplan,” Pennington said. “They live and die by the threes and we left gave them some wide-open threes. We could not overcome them.”

The Cubs look to get back in the win column Friday Seymour. The junior varsity is set to tipoff at 4 p.m. with the boys and girls varsity teams to follow.