By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Mountain Grove, Mo. — Mountain Grove’s hot start beyond the arc built a double-digit lead that visiting Thayer couldn’t overcome in a big SCA matchup Friday night.
The Panthers connected on five threes and already had three players with at least eight points by halftime, scoring 20 points in each of the first two quarters in a 72-59 win.
“We got out of the gates quick and we shot it decent early,” Mountain Grove head coach Duane Hiler said. “[Thayer is] good. They’re not the No. 1 team in the state by mistake. They earned the right. We knew it could be a game of spurts and we got a good spurt there and were able to hold on.”
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MBCA Class 2 No. 1 Thayer cut Class 3 No. 4 Mountain Grove’s 40-29 halftime lead to nine in the third quarter and seven in the fourth quarter but drew no closer despite a 21-point effort from sophomore Ayden Stone.
“A lot of times Stone just gets lost in the shuffle. But when we can get it to him, his footwork around the basket is tough,” Thayer head coach Matt Pitts said. “For a sophomore, he’s about as skilled as anybody I’ve had.”
Stone was Thayer’s main catalyst Friday. The only other Bobcat in double figures was Zyman Langley with 12 points as Mountain Grove mostly shut down Thayer’s guards.
“They just do a great job. They’re physical. They’re athletic and they were just enough bigger than us at spots,” Pitts said. “When it’s 5’10” vs. 6’1” and 6’2”, that’s hard. Plus, they’re fast and athletic and they do a great job defensively.”
After Connor McNew went for nine points in the first quarter, Cade Coffman did the same in the second for Mountain Grove, connected on three of his four 3s.
Mountain Grove connected on eight 3s Friday, but playing the perimeter wasn’t the idea coming in.
“We scouted them and didn’t plan to attack them on the perimeter, to be quite honest,” Hiler said. “We planned on attacking them inside, but they do a great job with their matchup zone and they really shut down some driving lanes and they shut down the paint. So we ended up living and dying outside.”
Brock Coffman also finished with 21 points, with 14 of those coming in the second half. Coffman was tough in the paint, getting to the free-throw line 12 times and connecting on eight.
“The one thing they do so well is passing,” Pitt said. “And out of our defense, what we do schematically, they do a good job of putting you in bad spots. Long closeouts, bad rotations, and I just thought that maybe if we could limit the paint touches, even if they made 12 threes, we might just stay close. They ended up making eight threes, which it seemed like they made 800.”
Mountain Grove finished 22-29 from the free-throw line. Thayer finished 6-9 and attempted just a single second-half free throw. Thayer fans and players were visibly frustrated with the officiating, but Pitts brushed that off after the game.
“[Mountain Grove] is a great team and a well-coached team,” Pitts said. “Losing is not fun, but that was a fun game.”
Mountain Grove iced Thayer by connected on 11 of 15 fourth-quarter free throws. McNew was 6-6 from the line in the fourth quarter and 9-10 on the night.
Coming into Friday’s game, neither team had lost in 2017.
FINAL: Mountain Grove 72, Thayer 59
Thayer 10 19 20 10- 59
Mountain Grove 20 20 17 15- 72
Thayer- Ayden Stone 21, Zyman Langley 12, Kobe Meyer 9, Jalen Andrews 9, Dagen Jones 8
Mountain Grove- Brock Coffman 21, Connor McNew 21, Cade Coffman 16, Treye Collins 8, Carter Otwell 4, Gavin Veach 2
