Worth County's boys picked up their first win in four years over King City, 71-47 as they ran away from them. The Wildkats were a dangerous team featuring Reagan Law, a 3-point shooter who is always dangerous in the open court. They push the ball up the floor after made baskets by the other team, which is uncommon in this area; that seemed to catch Worth County off-guard. Their whole game plan revolves around passing and cutting the other team to death and getting Reagan Law some good looks from downtown.
Worth County, in Coach Bryce Schafer's 2nd year at the helm, continues to search for consistency offensively; however, they made serious strides in meeting that goal by landing four in double figures. They built up a 12-5 lead behind five early points from Cade Allee. King City turned up the heat defensively and Worth County started panicking against the press as Law started getting open and Noah Poling added a couple of layups off steals as the Wildkats fought back to tie at 12-12. But then Cade Allee got open again and Mason Hawk found him for a 3-pointer to jump-start another Tiger run. Last year, Worth County would frequently jump out to an early lead only to see it fizzle. However, this time, Worth County made one stand up as they recovered from King City's scoring flurry to lead the rest of the way.
Ben Badell got things going for Worth County. He has not scored a lot of points in a game yet for Worth County, but his job is to push the ball up the floor, occupy the defense, and get everybody else the ball. He found Josh Warner one time and Mason Hawk another time as Worth County pushed the lead up to 19-12. He was one of the most improved players from last year as he made everybody around him better with his floor game. Warner added a putback to make it 21-12 before Law's 3-point play late made it 21-15 after one quarter.
It was a good quarter for the Tigers, but the challenge was to shut down Law and make someone else try and beat them. They did so as Drake Kinsella was able to break through screens and get in his face, forcing some misses which fueled Worth County's transition game. Ben Badell had another breathtaking assist in the second quarter as he led Chris Alarcon, aka "Topher," perfectly on a half-court baseball pass for a layup which pushed Worth County up double digits at 25-15. Topher added a steal and Drake Kinsella worked the offensive glass hard for the Tigers as their lead grew to as big as 33-18. Ben Badell was shaken up at the 2:08 mark, but the Tigers showed they were bigger than any one player as Alarcon went to the rack twice for layups and found Cade Allee for a 3-pointer as Worth County held the fort while Ben was out and led 40-25 at the break.
Topher came out of the break on fire for Worth County, scoring their first five points to put the Tigers up 45-27. Ben Badell then supplied the dagger for the Tigers, knocking down a 3-pointer to put them up 20 for the first time at 53-33 and then taking Reagan Law to the rack with his left hand to make it 59-37 late in the period. Shortly after that, King City threw in the towel and began putting in their subs. Jared Simmons took a charge for the Tigers in the period.
Worth County took its biggest lead in the fourth quarter behind free throws from Mason Hawk, Ryan McClellan, and Drake Kinsella as well as a perfect high-low pass from Hawk to Kinsella that put them up 64-39. Ryan Smyser came off and played like a man on a mission late in the fourth, getting to the line and collecting three points.
After struggling to find people who could score for the last few years, the Tigers landed four in double figures and eight in the scoring column. Cade Allee led the Tigers with 19 points, followed by Chris Alarcon with 15. Drake Kinsella had 11, Josh Warner 10, Ben Badell 7, Mason Hawk 5, Ryan Smyser 3, and Ryan McClellan had 1.
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