MORAN— In a rout here Tuesday night Marmaton Valley High’s Wildcats earned their sixth win of the season as they toppled Altoona-Midway High’s Jets 54-32.
Wildcat head coach Dennis Lasley said a mixture of poor shooting by the Jets and high-energy play by the Wildcats led to his team’s 22-point shellacking of the Three Rivers League rivals.
“They were cold from the outside,” he said. “We just played better.”
The Wildcats poured in 17 opening-period points while holding the Jets to five points. It was more of the same in the second and the Wildcats took a 25-point lead into the locker room at the half.
Still clinging to a 20-plus point lead halfway though the third, Lasley sat his starters to give his junior varsity players some time on the court. The backups kept pace and sustained the lead.
Lasley said the turnovers that have plagued the Wildcats in their losses this season didn’t happen Tuesday night.
“Starting out the season we had 32 turnovers and now we were down to 10,” he said. “That helps a bunch.”
Leading scorers for the Wildcats were Cole Becker with a game-high 22 points and Zach Louk with 11. Marmaton Valley’s Nathan Smart secured 11 rebounds and teammates Louk and Becker nabbed three steals each.
The Jets were led by Caleb Denoon with 19 points.
In junior varsity action, the Wildcats topped the Jets 41-24. Wildcat Michael Genn led all scorers with 22 points.
Marmaton Valley (17-16-10-11—54) (FG/3-pt): Louk 5-1-1-11, Genn 1-0-0-2, Stevenson 1-1-0-3, Smith 0-0-3-0, Carr 2/1-0-1-7, Becker 9/1-1-0-22, Gonzalez 0-0-1-0, Ramsey 0-1-2-1, Hamlin 2-0-2-4, Smart 1-0-1-2. TOTALS: 21/2-4-11-54.
Altoona-Midway (5-8-9-10—32): Marple 0-0-1-0, Walker 0-0-1-0, Brown 1-0-2-2, C. Denoon 2/3-6-0-19, Huffman 0/1-0-1-3, Busteed 0-2-0-2, Engleman 1-0-1-2, A. Denoon 1-2-0-4. TOTALS: 5/4-10-6-32.
