Smithville blows out Hounds again
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville sophomore forward Jackson Golightly puts back a rebound for two points in the second half of the Spoofhounds’ 62-38 MEC loss to Smithville Friday night. Golightly finished with six points on the night.
It’s been a busy two weeks of the Maryville boys’ basketball team with five games in 12 days, so there hasn’t been a lot of time for practice. Maryville head coach Matt Stoecklein even snuck in a quick practice Friday afternoon before his team lost to Smithville for the second time in a week, and it showed.
“It has to help because we haven’t been on the court,” Stoecklein said. “… We couldn’t practice Wednesday because we have a policy that if school gets cancelled you can’t practice and then Thursday we had a wrestling meet, so we got an hour in. We need to get shots up and we need to get reps in, and we just haven’t been able to.”
The Spoofhounds started out a lot better this go around than the last. Maryville scored the first points of the game after not getting on the board at all in the first quarter of last Saturday’s matchup, but still eventually suffered a 62-38 setback — its fourth straight loss.
Maryville then pushed out to a 6-2 lead before Smithville answered with a 9-0 run to take the air out of the Spoofhounds before senior guard Payden Dawson ended the run with a free throw. The Warriors clung to a 15-11 lead at the end of one, but the 9-0 spurt gave them all of the momentum.
“It took the wind out of us,” Stoecklein said. “Then we started missing some shots and energy went down, and their energy went up.”
The second quarter was more of a defensive battle, with Smithville trapping often out of its 2-3 zone and Maryville doing a better job of running shooters off the three-point line than it did in the first meeting.
“It just wasn’t our night,” Maryville senior center Jacob Cacek said. “We still didn’t have shots fall and we just didn’t play as great of defense as we wanted to. … We turned the ball over too many times on some easy passes and stuff like that. I don’t think it was really anything their defense especially did, it was more our own errors than it was anything else.”
However, Warriors junior guard Campbell Lakatos started heating up in the second quarter, scoring six of Smithville’s 10 points in the frame, including a pull-up jumper just before the halftime buzzer to send the Warriors into the locker room with a 25-16 lead.
The deficit held steady early in the second half, 29-20, before Lakatos buried a corner three-pointer, then added another from the right wing and finished off his personal 7-0 run with a free throw to push the Warriors’ lead into double figures.
“He’s tough and he’s quick as heck,” Stoecklein said. “We’ve been practicing the zone offense and have gotten away from the defense, and it showed. … He’s a good player.”
A layup from sophomore forward Jackson Golightly ended Lakatos’ outburst, but the damage had been done as Smithville now held a 36-22 advantage.
To cap things off, Lakatos finished off the third quarter with a driving layup to push the advantage to 44-26 heading into the fourth quarter.
“It wasn’t a blowout like it was the first time,” Stoecklein said. “It was a slower blowout.”
Another strong quarter from the Warriors kept the Hounds at bay before Stoecklein inserted some of his younger players with two minutes to play and the game out of reach.
Sophomore guard John Zimmerman led Maryville with seven points while Golightly and Cacek finished with six each. Lakatos scored a game-high 19 while Riley Gesling added 14 and Jackson Kroll finished with 11.
The Spoofhounds (9-11) don’t have much time to dwell on it before welcoming Kansas City Christian East to town at 6 p.m. Monday. Stoecklein said his team would go through a walkthrough Sunday before taking on a team that plays a style similar to that of the Warriors.
“They’re a good team,” Stoecklein said. “They’re a long team. From what we’ve seen so far, they’re gonna play a 2-3 zone. They press, they trap. It’ll be another tough one. Hopefully we hit some shots. That’ll make a big difference if we hit some shots.”
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville senior guard Payden Dawson fires a hook shot over the outstretched arms of Smithville’s J.D. Benbow (35) in the second half of the Spoorfhounds’ 62-38 loss to the Warriors Friday night.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville junior forward Chip Dunlap hangs in the air to finish between a pair of Smithville during the first half of the Spoofhounds’ 62-38 loss to the Warriors.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville sophomore guard Trey Oglesby drives past Smithville’s Ty Walters in the first half of the Hounds’ 62-38 conference loss to the Warriors Friday night.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville senior guard Payden Dawson tries to finish inside during the first half of the hounds’ 62-38 loss to Smithville during Friday night’s MEC matchup at MHS.
