Spoofhounds look for redemption in Section 8 game
DAILY FORUM FILE PHOTO
Eli Dowis sails past Lawson’s premier guard Cody Glenn for a layup in Maryville’s 41-38 loss on Jan. 28. In the past two seasons, Maryville has lost to Lawson twice by a combined seven points, included being ousted in last year’s Sectional round.
The District representatives of Class 3 Section 8 haven’t changed since last time around.
For the second consecutive season, Maryville’s boys basketball team will square off against the Lawson Cardinals in the Sectional round to earn a right into the State quarterfinal.
Maryville enters the game 20-4, and Lawson is 23-2 with losses only to Lafayette County and Hamilton – the latter of which the Hounds defeated in the District 16 championship, 67-60.
Wednesday’s game at 6 p.m. at Excelsior Springs High School will come just one day short of marking a year since Lawson ended the Spoofhounds’ 2015-2016 run. Lawson advanced with a 47-43 victory in which Maryville had two chances to tie with less than five seconds remaining.
Lawson is also responsible for handing Maryville one if its four losses on the season, defeating the Spoofhounds 41-38 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the championship of the Cameron Tournament on Jan. 28.
“They’ve been waiting for this for so long, to be back here again,” Maryville coach Matt Stoecklein said. “If you’re playing well enough to win Districts, everything will take care of itself. Our biggest goal now is to make sure we don’t let Lawson get away with one. I shouldn’t say it that way, because they’re a heck of a good team with a heck of a good player, but two years in a row now close losses to them.”
The player Stoecklein refers to is Cody Glenn, a senior guard averaging 21.7 points and 4.8 assists per game.
Glenn shoots 48 percent from the field, and 41 percent from beyond the arc.
Stoecklein said that aside from limiting the First Team All-Region performer, he and his team have been tirelessly tinkering trying to find an antidote for low scoring outputs against Lawson the last few go-arounds.
“We want to take care of business and get this Sectional win, but it’s just so confusing, we average around 60 points a game. Since our Sectional loss last year against them, we’ve put in 40 points a game last year and this year. We’re too high-scoring of an offense. We’ve been for about a month trying to break down and figure out how we can score more points against them.
“Like always, we want to run in transition, but you’ve got to get clean rebounds, squeeze it, kick it, get it out, and go. Sometimes, you don’t get it clean, you can’t get it down the court very quickly.”
Aside from Glenn, forward Zach Miller is the only Cardinal averaging double digits in scoring with 10.7 per game. Max Ross is third on the team with 8.6.
Miller leads Lawson in per-game boards with 5.8. Tyler Dunn manages 4.6 rebounds per game, and Coleman Weber – responsible for delivering the dagger as time expired in the teams’ first meeting this year – nabs four rebounds on average.
Lawson has outscored opponents by an average margin of 17 points so this year.
Spoofhound senior forward Jackson Golightly said that Wednesday night’s challenge is one that he and his teammates cannot wait for.
“We’ll be ready, obviously they beat us in Excelsior last year, so the coaches will have us all ready. We’ll be alright. We’ve got to figure out how to beat a zone, but last game against Lawson we just lost, we didn’t shoot very well. We shot terribly, actually. This time around we’ll figure out how to shut down Glenn and that’ll be that.”
The winner of Wednesday’s game will face the winner of Cole Camp and Hogan Prep Academy Charter on 1 p.m. Saturday at Lee’s Summit High School.
DAILY FORUM FILE PHOTO
Maryville coach Matt Stoecklein rallies his team in a Jan. 24 win over Smithville. Stoecklein says that his team will have to be more effective in the transition game to defeat Lawson in the Sectional game on Wednesday.
