Spoofhounds get back in win column
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville sophomore guard Spencer Morrison goes for the finger roll in the second half of the Hounds’ 61-51 win over Kansas City East Christian Academy, which ended a four-game losing skid.
The proverbial lid came off the basket Monday night and the Maryville boys’ basketball team got itself back in the win column after four straight losses dropped it under .500, showing some resiliency in a 61-51 win over Kansas City East Christian Academy.
The lid came off quickly, and stayed off. Maryville sophomore guard Trey Oglesby canned a three-pointer from the top of the key for the first points of the night. After the Lions got on the board, Oglesby splashed another deep ball from the corner.
“It felt so much better,” Oglesby said of finally seeing his shot fall. “I get frustrated not being able to hit anything. The coaches are always like, ‘Let it go, let it go.’ I even banked one in. It must’ve been my night.”
After the Lions’ Evan Morrison made it a two-point game, 6-4, the Spoofhounds went on an 8-0 run, keyed by a three-pointer from sophomore guard John Zimmerman.
“I know my teammates have faith in me,” Zimmerman said. “I just stepped up and took the shot. Fortunately, it went in.
“This team can go on 10-0 runs in two minutes. It’s huge to get up on a team like this because they can come back.”
Morrison ended the run with another layup, but the Spoofhounds held a 14-6 lead at the end of one quarter of play, finally solving the 2-3 zone defense that had caused them problems the last couple weeks.
“One kid makes a shot, a second kid makes a shot and it just gets easier,” Maryville head coach Matt Stoecklein said. “The basket just gets bigger and bigger for everybody. That’s huge to get off to a good start, and keep that good start going.
“We moved the ball much better. The ball goes inside to outside, rather than from point to wing and then you shoot it. Those shots are 10-15 percent lower, I don’t know, I’m making those numbers up, but we went inside, we moved it and then we got wide-open shots.”
Oglesby opened the second quarter with another triple, but Kansas City East came charging back and took a 23-22 lead on six straight points from TJ Calvert and kept the Spoofhounds slightly off balance by rotating through several different defensive looks.
“Sometimes you don’t really expect it, so that cut us off guard a little bit,” Oglesby said. “Most of the time, we just tried to get somebody to the middle. We know if we get to the middle, it’ll be fine.”
Zimmerman gave Maryville the lead right back with another three-pointer, but the Lions hit another three before layups from senior center Jacob Cacek and Zimmerman gave the Hounds a 29-26 halftime lead.
“We have jumped out to leads early, and then things just didn’t go our way so we slowly plummeted,” Stoecklein said. “This time, they started to creep back and took the lead, and our boys continued to battle. … Those little things added up tonight.”
East took a pair of leads early in the third period before three straight layups from Zimmerman, junior forward Chip Dunlap and sophomore forward Jakob Gray put the Hounds back out in front, but that was nowhere near the end of the seesaw affair.
A Morrison three tied things at 40 with 1:35 left in the third, but Oglesby answered with his fourth triple of the night and senior guard Payden Dawson pump-faked Carter Dye into the air and beat the buzzer with a floater to send the Spoofhounds into the fourth quarter with a five-point lead, 45-40.
The two teams went back and forth throughout the fourth quarter, but the Hounds held steady. An and-one from East’s Jerome Dailey cut the Maryville lead back to 56-51, but Zimmerman and Dawson went a combined 5-of-6 from the foul stripe in the final 30 seconds to close out the win.
“You miss those shots and all of a sudden they have hope,” Stoecklein said. “By making those free throws, it kind of deflates them quite a bit. That was huge.”
Stoecklein said it was a game where his team showed some maturity, and his players agreed that this was a step in the right direction.
“Sometimes its good to get down, face (adversity) and come back from it,” Oglesby said. “Really, playing a bunch of sophomores and a few juniors, we need some of that to grow up. I think it will help us a lot.”
Zimmerman led all scorers with 16 points while Oglesby finished with 13. Calvert and Morrison scored 13 each to lead the Lions.
Maryville (10-11) is back in action at 7 p.m. Friday against Benton at Maryville High School.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville sophomore guard Trey Oglesby lets go of the first three points of Monday night’s 61-51 win over Kansas City East Christian Academy. Oglesby knocked down four three-pointers on the night and scored 13 points.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
After getting fouled, Maryville sophomore forward Jakob Gray tries to finish a layup in the first half of the Spoofhounds’ 61-51 win Monday night over KC East.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville senior center Jacob Cacek finishes a layup to open the second half of Monday night’s 61-51 win over Kansas City East Christian Academy. Cacek scored eight points in the victory.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville sophomore guard John Zimmerman prepares to go up with a floater after turning the corner during the Spoofhounds’ 61-51 win over KC East Monday night at home. Zimmerman led all scorers with 16 points.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville junior forward Chip Dunlap scores two points before being fouled late in the Spoofhounds’ 61-51 win against KC East Monday night at home.
