Golightly’s 20 points paces Hounds past Golden Eagles

By Phil Cobb | February 1, 2016 |

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Maryville junior Spencer Morrison fires a jumper from the baseline on Monday during a 69-47 win against Bishop LeBlond at home. Morrison scored eight of his 10 points in the first quarter, helping to keep the Spoofhounds afloat early.

Maryville went nearly wire-to-wire Monday night with Bishop LeBlond at home, coming away with a Midland Empire Conference win after overcoming a narrow halftime deficit.

The Spoofhounds, behind juniors Jackson Golightly and John Zimmerman, stretched a lead in the fourth quarter that they worked to get in the third, stabilizing their 69-47 victory. Golightly poured in a game-high 20 points, while Zimmerman scored nine of his 11 in the second half to help the Hounds build a dominant lead that wasn’t indicative of the true level of competition.

“It’s a good experience to be in and learn from that type of (close) game,” Maryville head coach Matt Stoecklein said. “I’d have felt a little more comfortable if we beat them like we did last time (60-39) but it does give our players chances and opportunities to come away with some of those games and to learn from them.”

The win comes on the heels of a third place finish in the Cameron Invitational Basketball Tournament last week, culminating in an overtime win over Lafayette County on Saturday for the bronze.

Sophomore guard Jake Woods hit the game winner in the extra period, propelling the Spoofhounds to their 63-61 victory in overtime.

“It was a phenomenal tournament for us,” Stoecklein said. “We played great in all three games. Smithville was a late-game situation. We learned from it, and then we took it into the Lafayette County game and did things a little bit differently. … Last year we had so many games where we didn’t have a lot of close games, didn’t have a lot of pressure games.”

Bishop LeBlond put together the first run of Monday’s action, stringing together an 8-0 spurt that gave it a 13-5 lead early in the opening quarter.

Maryville called a timeout at the 4:05 mark of the first period, ending the run less than a minute later on a finish inside from junior Spencer Morrison stemming from an assist out of the hand of Zimmerman.

Morrison was a consistent source of offense in the first quarter for an otherwise anemic Spoofhound attack, coming up with eight points as the Golden Eagles took an 18-13 lead at the end of the opening period. Morrison was the Hounds’ third double-digit scorer on the night with 10 points.

“It just seems like with this team that someone is always stepping up if we’re ever off on a night, if one of (our leading scorers) is off on a night,” Stoecklein said.

With nothing falling for either side most of the second quarter, the Spoofhounds hung around for several minutes but couldn’t climb on top.

Finally, a pair of jumpers from junior forward Jackson Golightly keyed a 6-0 run that put them on top, 25-24, with less than two minutes left until halftime.

The Golden Eagles went back on top with under a minute until the break, securing a 26-25 halftime lead.

Finally, Maryville got its offense going in the third behind easy transition opportunities created on the defensive end. The Spoofhounds tallied seven straight points sparked by a pair of buckets from Golightly, helping to take a 32-26 lead early in the third period.

Thanks to those easy looks, and a buzzer-beating jumper from Golightly to end the third, Maryville held a 45-39 advantage heading to the final quarter of play.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Zimmerman and Golightly began a 12-2 spree for the Hounds, sealing a 57-45 lead with less than three minutes to go. That spread held easily, marking a sixth win for Maryville on its home floor with a couple threes in the final minute from freshman Eli Dowis and junior Alex Bean that equated to a blowout final score.

“A couple of our kids started hitting, but Bishop LeBlond had to have been running out of energy,” Stoecklein said. “We can go nine, 10 players deep, but he was only going, what, seven? … They had to have started running out of gas a little bit, but we were also hitting shots.”

Maryville (13-5) will play at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lathrop.

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Junior guard Trey Oglesby releases a shot on a pull-up jumper from the baseline against Bishop LeBlond on Monday in Maryville, a 69-47 win for the Hounds.

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Spoofhounds junior guard John Zimmerman works his way into the lane before floating a pass to a teammate Monday while Maryville built a 69-47 win over Bishop LeBlond.