Worth County's boys are off to a fast start this year, continuing the dominance that they showed during the football season. As of Thursday night, they are off to a 4-0 start, with all four of their games going into running clock mode. They beat Stanberry 51-11 to start the season, beat North Harrison 60-20, beat King City 46-16, and beat Northeast Nodaway 49-7.
Their best player is Bo Collins, but coach April Healy has the luxury of being able to go 15 deep and keep fresh bodies out on the floor at all times, similar to the Platte Valley girls team that won state last year. They all know how to play the game, they all know how to play defense, and they all know how to shut down even good players.
The one team that pushed them this year so far has been North Harrison; the Shamrocks took it at Collins with their big man, Ethan Henson, got him in foul trouble, and were able to hang with the Tigers for 2+ quarters. But like the Coyote and the Roadrunner, the Tigers suddenly left them in the dust; after leading them 32-20 early in the third quarter, they scored the final 28 points of the game to win 60-20.
Against Northeast Nodaway, the Tigers raced off to a 24-2 first quarter lead and never looked back. The stat sheet told the tale; Worth County outrebounded Northeast Nodaway 29-12, and forced 22 Bluejay turnovers while surrendering the ball only 6 times. They were beating Northeast up and down the floor. Hayden Sanders scored the first four points; then, Bo Collins scored off a Sanders steal and cut inside and got a pass from Brayden Stevens to make it 8-0.
Brayden Stevens and Cole Ruby locked down Drew Dack and held him to just 5 points; the rest of the team, including Collins, played textbook help defense. But Brayden showed some spark on the other end as well, getting a feed from Franklynn Hoff and only needing three dribbles to cover 30 feet to the basket to make it 10-0. Another highlight happened at the 2:41 mark of the first when Caleb New got a steal, got it to Stevens, who fed Collins for the finish to make it 16-0.
The Tigers outscored Northeast in every quarter, leading them 34-4 at the half and 41-7 after the third. After Bo Collins aired one out to Hoff, who fed Caleb New for the finish, the first stringers were done. But the #11 through #15 players kept up the pressure, not allowing good looks on defense. Brayden Murphy fed Brayden Combs for a coast to coast look and Murphy, who would start in the post for a lot of other teams, grabbed a putback in the closing minutes. He got four boards in just five minutes of action.
Nine different Tigers scored for the night. Bo Collins had 12, Caleb New 9, Hayden Sanders 8, Brayden Stevens 7, Franklynn Hoff 4, Andrew Griffin 3, and Cole Ruby, Brayden Murphy, and Brayden Combs each with 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment