Mustangs blow past Rockets
HENRY JANSSEN/DAILY FORUM
Dakota Smyser, who finished with 22 points for the Mustangs, gets around West Nodaway’s Parker Ogle and drives toward the hoop. North Nodaway won by 26.
FAIRFAX – After a hot-shooting start and a 9-5 lead in the opening minutes of the game, the influenza-riddled West Nodaway Rockets were easily handled by the North Nodaway Mustangs, 63-37, in the boys’ consolation bracket of the Fairfax Invitational on Thursday night.
North Nod brought a 25-13 lead into the second quarter, which inflated to 41-23 by the halftime break. West Nod would never come within 18 points in the second half.
Given the circumstances, the Rockets’ head coach Tad Shotten said that he thought his team showed him some life.
“We knew tonight was going to be tough,” the first-year coach said. “Weston Carter – a senior and our best defender – we would have put on Peyton Coleman, but he’s home sick with the flu. Dylan Carden was sick tonight and played through it, Brody Beason was sick. So was Parker Ogle. Under the conditions, my guys played fine. We played hard, they just got out and ran against us and we couldn’t stop the fast break.”
Coleman gave West Nodaway major trouble on Thursday night. He and Dakota Smyser did the lion’s share of the scoring with a respective 24 and 22 points.
Shotten said that he was impressed with his team’s play in the first handful of minutes before conceding the lead midway in the opening quarter.
“We were playing aggressive and making our shots, we had some rhythm. Our defense frustrated them and got them sped up a little bit. I can’t be mad at them, every game they play hard for me. They played hard for me tonight being sick.”
West Nodaway had no scorers in double figures. Carden finished with nine, and Austin Wymer had eight.
West Nodaway, now eliminated from the Fairfax Invitational, will play again next week versus DeKalb and Mound City. Shotten believes these two games will challenge his team to play the best basketball it has played thus far.
North Nodaway, on the other hand, will play again Friday in the consolation championship with time and location yet to be disclosed due to inclement weather impending.
Mustang head coach Jake Shipman said that after trailing early, a timeout helped his team right the ship.
“We weren’t running a whole lot of sets, we weren’t doing what we talked about in the pregame about being aggressive off of defensive rebounds. We kind of thought all we had to do was show up, so that first couple of minutes was a little rough. Defensively, we were star struck. I told them that we have to do more, keeping the pedal down all game. West Nodaway played well to get us flustered. Sometimes we need that.
“It was nice to see our transition game, we haven’t gotten out and run like that in a while. I thought we did a good job of finishing tonight.”
HENRY JANSSEN/DAILY FORUM
West Nodaway’s Austin Wymer squeezes between two defenders. He went on to get fouled while shooting a floater. North Nodaway won 63-37 in Fairfax.
HENRY JANSSEN/DAILY FORUM
West Nodaway’s Brody Beason turns the corner against North Nodaway’s Arron Coleman in a 63-37 Mustang victory. West Nodaway will host DeKalb next Tuesday, and North Nodaway advances to the consolation championship on Friday.
