Gasconade County Republican

Cole Farris (far right) drives to the basket Saturday during Owensville’s 55-45 win over the Wildcats.
HERMANN — Seventeen games into the season, Josh Vinyard’s Dutchmen went into desperation mode to get the zero out of the win column.

During the 7th place game of the Hermann Tournament Saturday against Wright City, Owensville broke into the win column with a 55-45 victory over the Wildcats.

“We got a huge monkey off our backs with the win today,” Dutchmen head coach Josh Vinyard said. “At this point in the season, we’ll take a win anyway we can get it. Now we have something we can build on for the home stretch of the season.

Coming off losses to St. James (50-33) and Warrenton (45-41), OHS’ hunger for victory was fueled even more.

Freshman Drew Garner picked up the scoring slack for the Dutchmen in the first quarter against Wright City.

Scoring eight of Owensville’s first 11 points, Garner helped OHS to a 16-13 lead over the Wildcats after one quarter.

Wright City would cut the lead to one at 20-19 on a basket by Collin Coats with 4:40 remaining in the first half.

Dutchmen junior Cole Farris caught fire with nine of Owensville’s next 12 points all from beyond the arc.

Tanner Goodman and Shawnee Wright also contributed points during OHS’ 16-2 run to close the first half giving them a 36-21 lead over Wright City at halftime.

Hitting eight 3-pointers in the first half, Farris accounted for half of those to pace Owensville with 12 points.

Not willing to go away quietly, Coats started the third quarter with the first seven points pulling the Wildcats to within eight of the Dutchmen at the 6:10 mark of the third quarter, 36-28.

Picking up where he left off in the first half, Garner fired in a pair of 3-pointers in the final minutes of the quarter to give Owensville a 47-32 lead with eight minutes standing between them and their first victory of the 2011-12 basketball season.

Armed with another run in them, Wright City’s Wildcats outscored the Dutchmen, 7-2 to pull back within 10 points at 49-39 with 3:22 left in the game.

A basket by Wright and free throws from Landon Farrell, Dalton Littrell and Goodman helped hold off Wright City and put a notch in the win column for Owensville.

Garner led three Dutchmen in double figures with a team-high 14 points. Joining the OHS freshman in double figures were Farris with 12 markers and Goodman with 10.

Wright narrowly missed a double double with nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds.

Stepping back into Four Rivers Conference (FRC) play, the Dutchmen will travel down Interstate 44 to play Pacific’s Indians Friday night at 6 p.m., with JV action starting the evening of basketball.