Doryan Onwuchekwa leads Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy to bounceback win over Vashon at Quincy Shootout
QUINCY, ILLINOIS – Doryan Onwuchekwa had trouble falling asleep on Friday night.
Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy’s talented 6-foot-11 senior center, who is headed to the University of Colorado next year, was held scoreless in his team’s loss to Link Academy at the Quincy Shootout and it was weighing heavily on his mind.
“I could hardly go to sleep last night,” he said. “I was thinking about it.”
Onwuchekwa and his Texas teammates bounced back in a big way with an impressive 56-44 victory over Vashon (St. Louis, Mo.) on Saturday night at Quincy High School.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit finishing games and we had a tough loss yesterday,” he said. “This game, this game here, I feel like this will be a turning point in our season.”
Onwuchekwa led the way with 23 points and 10 rebounds – both game highs – while adding two blocked shots, two assists and a steal. He was a plus-17 in 24 minutes 19 seconds and drew 12 fouls, which he turned into a 15-for-19 performance at the free throw line.
“I had to have a good game because I had zero points yesterday,” he said. “That kind of messed with me a little bit. I had to come back with something. I had to give my team something.”
Asked when the last time he was held scoreless or if that has ever happened before, Onwuchekwa said: “It’s been a minute.”
Faith Family Academy coach Brandon Thomas said his senior center suffered an injury early in his team’s 69-59 loss to Link.
“The biggest factor was he fell down early in the game yesterday and sprained his wrist and I think it just affected him mentally,” Thomas said. “And of course you’re playing against really good competition yesterday. It wasn’t easy for him anyway.
“But he was battling that injury and I think it was a psychological thing for him yesterday. Today he played good enough, obviously, led us in scoring, made free throws – some with his left hand, some with his right.”
Onwuchekwa said he practiced shooting with his left hand, his off-hand, before Saturday’s game to try to get a feel for it. It felt good enough for him to even attempt a 3-pointer from the left wing with his left hand, though the shot did not fall.
The big fella made 78.9 percent of his free throw attempts on Saturday against Vashon, though there was no breakdown of his shooting percentage with each hand.
“There was one (time) there where he shot one with the left and then he shot the second one with the right,” Thomas said.
Onwuchekwa said he would get his wrist checked out when the team returned to Dallas. He said he wasn’t sure if it is a sprain or if there is something broken.
The senior center and his team will make the trip back home feeling better after going 1-1 on the weekend in Quincy following the bounce-back victory against Vashon, one of the top teams in Missouri.
Thomas said the difference on Saturday was his team’s defense and taking care of the basketball.
“We had 22 turnovers yesterday,” he said of the loss to Link Academy. “You’re not going to beat anybody like that, not anybody good anyway.”
“Not one of the best teams in the country and not one of the best programs in the country like Vashon,” the coach added. “We took care of the basketball today. I don’t know if we dominated on the glass but I know we won in the paint in terms of rebounds, we won in terms of points in the paint, we won at the free throw line. So that’s the formula. When you don’t shoot the ball well, which we didn’t, you have get what we call kills. Anytime we get three stops in a row, that’s a kill. We had eight of them. Our goal is fine. So that’s it, defense wins.”
In addition to Onwuchekwa’s 23 points, the Eagles got 13 points and six rebounds from senior guard Isaac Williams and nine points from junior guard Tahsheim Gary.
Vashon (11-5), the No. 2 team in the SBLive Missouri Power 25 rankings, was led by senior guard Nassir Binion’s 16 points.
The Wolverines shot just 33.3 percent from the field (18 of 54) and 27.3 percent from 3-point range (six of 22).
Oak Cliff Faith Family - Vashon boys basketball
Photo by Nate Latsch, SBLive Sports
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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
