In a home contest against the Licking Wildcats, senior D. J. McNew scored his 1,000th career point and led the Mtn. Grove Panthers to a 64-57 victory Tuesday night.
“I think I had to score four, and I got it done,” said McNew, who led all scorers with 25 points. McNew’s teammates Carter Otwell and Brock Coffman were each double-digit scorers, with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The win came despite hot shooting from the Wildcats, including seven three-pointers from Dillon Smith. Smith and Nathan Wilson each scored 23 of Licking’s 57 points. “Nathan scores a lot in every game, and when Dillon shoots like that, we’re a better team,” said Licking head coach Ben Glasgow. “We really tried to turn him loose tonight, because we knew we needed him. He played really well.”
The Panthers pulled ahead early by drawing fouls and sinking 7 free throws in the first half, leading 33-21 to start the third quarter. That’s when the Wildcats’ shooting heated up, as they drained four threes and put up 20 points to the Panthers’ 16 points in the third. Licking outscored the home team once again in the final quarter, but the early lead and clutch free throw shooting helped the Panthers to victory.
“I thought early we did some good things and got some mismatches, and offensively attacked the basket,” said Mountain Grove head coach Duane Hiler. “It seemed like the farther we went into the game, the less we attacked it. But they’ve got a great group.”
Coach Hiler mentioned the solid play of Dillon Smith. “We knew they had to score out of him and Wilson, and that’s who they scored out of. They get good shots, and get good looks, and they are great players. There was nothing there to surprise us, they sometimes just elevate up and stick one on you. Offensively, we did enough to finish.”
The Wildcats lacked Brady Smith, an essential part of the team’s scoring trifecta. “We are a player short, and you’re looking at 18 points and 10 rebounds per game, but it wasn’t going to be our focal point,” said Coach Glasgow. “We focused on battling all the way to the end, and I felt we did that. We stepped up tonight. We knew it was going to be difficult here, and we wanted to come out with something positive, and we feel like we did.”
