LE ROY — Marmaton Valley High’s boys “took care of business” Tuesday, taking control early against a short-handed Southern Coffey County squad.
Marmaton Valley raced to leads of 15-4 after one quarter and 34-7 at halftime of a 63-18 win.
The win came after Marmaton Valley announced Curt Drake will ascend to the head coaching position after former head coach, Cornell Walls, was relieved of his coaching duties.
No reason was given for the change, which occurs while the Wildcats are vying for a return to the state tournament.
Drake has served as the team’s assistant coach for the past three seasons.
“I’ve had the privilege of coaching this age group through baseball, too,” Drake said. “The guys all know each other. We’re all familiar with each other.”
Marmaton Valley’s Jaedon Granere came off the bench to give the Wildcats an early lift, scoring 10 of the team’s 15 first-quarter points.
A balanced scoring attack took over in the second quarter as seven Wildcats reached the scoring column.
Southern Coffey County, which is down to five healthy players on its roster due to injury, got a brief charge in the third quarter with 3-pointers from Cyrus Nickel and Hank Newton, but it wasn’t enough against a loaded Wildcat roster.
“Our guys haven’t given up,” SCC head coach Brian Rand said. “All we ask is they do one thing better each day, to continue to try to improve.”
“We got to play a lot of younger guys through the whole fourth quarter,” Drake noted. “We played good defense, and we played well together as a team. That’s what we’ve been trying to get after, become one unit, one team.”
Granere led Marmaton Valley with 16 points, followed by Brayden Lawson with nine and Thomas Allee with seven.
Charley Nickel scored eight and Newton had six to pace SCC.
Marmaton Valley travels to Altoona-Midway Friday. Southern Coffey County hosts Yates Center.
MV (15-19-17-12—63)
FG/3pt FT F TP
Campbell 0/1 2 0 5
Smith 2 0 1 4
Granere 5/2 0 1 16
Stevenson 2 0 1 4
Morrison 1/1 0 2 5
Lord 1/1 1 2 6
Kr. McVey 0/1 0 0 3
E. Lawson 2 0 2 4
Allee 2/1 0 1 7
B. Lawson 4 1 2 9
Totals 197 4 12 63
SCC (4-3-8-3—18)
Higdin 0 1 3 1
Cy. Nickel 0/1 0 3 3
Newton 1/1 1 2 6
Ch. Nickel 4 0 3 8
Totals 5/2 2 11 18
