WASHINGTON — Ending a 12-year hiatus from the St. Francis Borgia Turkey Tournament last week, Todd Rehmert’s Owensville Dutchmen left Washington with a victory in the seventh-place game and a lot to work on following losses to the host Knights and Washington Blue Jays.

Matched up against North Tech’s Golden Eagles in the seventh-place game Saturday afternoon from Borgia, OHS looked to leave Ray DeGreeff Gymnasium with at least one victory.

Overcoming a game-opening 9-0 run and a 34-27 deficit in the second quarter, the Dutchmen put together a 9-4 run to hold on for a 72-65 win over the Eagles.

“It feels good to get a win here against a fast, scrappy, athletic team like North Tech,” Rehmert said.

Able to overcome Brady Smith picking up three first-quarter fouls, Owensville escaped the first eight minutes with a 17-15 lead after giving up the first nine points of the contest.

Trevor Abernathy (6) and Daxton Mehrhoff (5) combined for 11 of OHS’ 17 first-quarter points.

Even they doubled their point total in the second quarter, Rehmert’s Dutchmen still went into halftime trailing North Tech 36-34.

Cason Gray and Mehrhoff both netted 10 points to pace the Owensville offense in the first half.

Scoring in double figures the first two games of the tournament, Dutchmen junior Justin Garner picked up two fouls in the span of 16 seconds early in the third quarter giving him four for the game and sending him to the bench.

Already saddled with three fouls, Smith answered the bell in the second half scoring 13 of his 15 points including a bucket at the 5:20 mark of the quarter putting back on top to stay by a score of 40-39 at the time.

“Brady scored and rebounded well in the second half proving to be a big difference maker,” Rehmert said.

Scoring 11 of the next 13 points, Owensville suddenly found themselves with a double-digit lead of 51-41 over the Golden Eagles at the 2:03 mark of the third quarter.

Scoring the final four points of the period, Smith helped his Dutchmen team take a 53-46 lead into the final eight minutes of the seventh-place game at Borgia.

North Tech eventually trimmed OHS’ lead down to two points at 63-61 with 1:58 remaining before being forced to foul.

Going 5-6 from the free-throw line in the final 46.5 seconds of the game, Abernathy cemented his place on the 66th St. Francis Borgia Turkey Tournament All-Tournament Team helping the Dutchmen hold off North Tech.

“We loved playing against bigger schools to get our season going,” Abernathy said.

Limited to seven points combined against Borgia and Washington, Gray nearly recorded a double double with a game-high 19 points while pulling down nine rebounds.

Abernathy followed closely behind Gray scoring 12 of his 18 points in the second half.

To go along with his 15 points, Smith made it a double double pulling down a game-high 15 rebounds.

Doing most of his damage in the first half, Mehrhoff made it four Dutchmen in double figures with 12 points.

“We had really balanced scoring with a lot of guys stepping up today,” Rehmert said.

Austin Terry added five points while Garner netted a second-quarter 3-ball for three points rounding out Owensville’s scoring against North Tech.

Dutchmen vs. Washington

Sent to the consolation side of the bracket after an 83-47 loss to the host Knights last Tuesday, Owensville went for a split against Washington basketball teams facing the Blue Jays.

Taking an early 3-2 lead on a Garner 3-pointer at the 6:41 mark of the first quarter, OHS was then outscored 31-14 the rest of the first half before going on to fall to the Blue Jays, 72-47.

Splashing home four 3-pointers, Garner paced the Dutchmen offense with 18 points against Washington.

Abernathy added 13 points with nine of them coming in the second half.

Smith just missed double digits putting in eight points followed by Gray with five markers and Terry with a third-quarter bucket for two points to go along with his game-high 10 rebounds.

Against Borgia in the opening round last Tuesday, Garner paced the OHS offense with 13 points including nine of them from the land of three.

Owensville returns to action Monday hosting Missouri Military Academy with JV action tipping off at 5:30 p.m., at OHS.