By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Marionville, Mo. — Marionville left Lockwood in a tail of its mascot’s celestial dust late Thursday night, using a 20-2 fourth-quarter run to run away with its seventh consecutive win to open the season.
The Comets (7-0) started and finished fast, outscoring the Tigers (5-3) by 23 combined points in the first and fourth quarters, a separation that secured the 49-31 final.
“I thought our defense picked up in the fourth quarter and that helped on the offensive end as well,” Marionville head coach Ted Young said. “We got a few easy ones. And once we got a few easy ones, we got some confidence there in the middle of the fourth quarter.”
CLICK HERE FOR MARIONVILLE VS. LOCKWOOD PHOTOS
A defending district champion, Marionville graduated three seniors last season who averaged double-digit scoring numbers. Beyond that, they brought in a new head coach in Young, who had spent 2011-2015 coaching the Marionville girls before a stint with the boys in the mid-2000s.
Even with the turnover, it doesn’t seem that Marionville has skipped too many beats. Five of its seven wins have come by double-digits, and three have come over teams sitting above .500.
But despite the early success, Young is keeping his group grounded, and staying away from any talk of a state ranking.
“We have a long ways to get better,” Young said. “I think you’ve seen, in the first half especially, we did some things that looked like we really don’t need to be state ranked. We’ve still got some kids who are learning…but I think you seen glimpses in the fourth quarter that we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good team.”
Levi Doyle’s 14 points led the Comets, followed by Cole Brown’s 13 and Josh Goodman’s 10. Brown’s active hands at the point played a big part of the Marionville’s fourth-quarter surge.
One of five seniors on the roster, Brown came into this season with the most varsity experience on the team after averaging 5.1 points per game in 2015-16. Meaning? The Comets have had to grow together and find ways to score together fast.
“In basketball, you’ve gotta have some pretty good guards, and we’ve got some guards who haven’t got a lot of experience right now, and we’re still trying to get them experienced,” Young said. “They were a little timid and they’re still trying to adjust to different types of situations, but we have a little bit of quickness out there if we learn to use it.”
Lockwood drew within 18-16 late in the second quarter after trailing 10-3 after the first quarter, but a Brown buzzer-beating three-pointer pushed that deficit to 21-16 at the half.
The Tigers pushed back again in the second half, drawing even at 29-29 early in the fourth quarter.
Logan Sparkman led Lockwood with 11 points and was the only Tiger to reach double digits.
Lockwood’s 31 points was the lowest total Marionville has held an opponent to since its opening 55-21 win over Miller.
Marionville’s 49 points were a season-low for the Comets.
Lockwood has been held to 31 points in consecutive games after falling 60-31 to Class 1 No. 1 Walnut Grove on Dec. 13.
FINAL: Marionville 49, Lockwood 31
Lockwood 3 13 11 4 – 31
Marionville 10 11 8 20 – 49
Lockwood – Logan Sparkman 11, Ethan Bates 8, Cade Holman 6, Brady Waters 6
Marionville – Levi Doyle 14, Cole Brown 13, Josh Goodman 10, Nic Dean 6, Aaron Head 4, Gavin Stanton 2
