KEOTA – Would it be too much to ask for one uneventful Montezuma basketball trip to Keota during the first week in January?
Apparently.
But, Braves fans will take the ‘W’. Three of them, in fact!
The varsity Braves were playing good basketball on offense, snapping the ball around and through Keota’s defense with crisp passes.
On defense, the Braves made sure they didn’t get burned inside, and controlled tempo with their spacing, cutting and passing.
Montezuma won, 66-53, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, but it didn’t come as easily as that first bit made it sound.
Late in the third quarter, the Braves had a lead of 21 points – at 55-34 – before the first of three technical fouls changed the flow of play.
The first was against the Braves’ Eddie Burgess, then came one against Keota Coach Dan Stout, then a second against Burgess.
That one disqualified Burgess from the game, and he will be suspended from Friday’s home contest against 5-4 English Valleys.
The Braves still had most of their defense intact, and it did its thing.
Masin Shearer scored after a drive to put Montezuma up 65-52 with 2:09 left. After that Montezuma’s ball handling and a free throw by Shearer kept the margin safe.
“Up until those (technical) fouls, I was very pleased with how we played,” Braves Coach Derrick Dengler said.
“We were solid on defense and played as well on the offensive end as we have all season.”
Early on the night belonged to the Braves. They led 18-8 after one quarter, and 37-24 at halftime. Already Owen Cook, Burgess, Gavin Strong and Shearer were nearing double figures scoring.
The Braves were up 58-40 after three quarters. Then, cool change – and we’re not talking about the weather – blew into Keota.
Three Braves scored in double figures and a fourth was just one point away. Owen Cook and Burgess each had 16 points, Masin Shearer scored 15 and Gavin Strong had nine.
The Braves shot .551 from the field and assisted 18 of 27 made field goals. Keota shot just .281, including 4-of-21 (.190) from behind the arc.
The Eagles led 39-27 in rebounding, but part of that was them running down so many of their own missed shots.
Shearer dished 8 assists to go with his 15 points. Burgess had 11 rebounds and shot 8-for-11 from the field.
Owen Cook had a monster game with his 16 points. He was 7-for-12 from the field and added five rebounds.
Colton Benson wound up fouling out, but blocked out hard under the boards, grabbed four rebounds and scored six points.
Sophomore Sawyer Stout scored 17 points for Keota. Evan Vittetoe, a 6-1 freshman, scored 14 points and had 16 rebounds.
Montezuma is 7-2 overall and 6-1 SICL after making more memories against the rival Eagles.
Keota is 6-5 and 4-4.
FLY THE W! – We said three W’s, because the varsity girls also won, as did the JV boys. Three-for-three against Keota, at their place.
Not easy to do.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Montezuma 18 19 21 8 – 66
Keota 8 16 16 13 – 53
MONTEZUMA (66) – Gavin Strong 3-11, 2-3, 4, 9. Masin Shearer 6-12, 1-2, 1, 15. Colton Benson 2-2, 2-4, 5, 6. Owen Cook 7-12, 1-4, 1, 16. Eddie Burgess 8-11, 0-0, 4, 16. Max Anderson 1-1, 0-0, 1, 3. Cam Michalek 0-0, 1-2, 1, 1. TOTALS – 27-49, 7-14, 17, 66.
KEOTA (53) – 16-57, 17-27, 8, 53.
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Technical fouls: Burgess 2, Keota Coach Stout 1.
Fouled out: Benson, Burgess (2 technicals).
Three-point-goals: Montezuma 6-15 (Shearer 2-5, Anderson 1-1, Cook 1-4, Strong 1-5); Keota 4-21.
Turnovers: Montezuma 14, Keota 15.
Rebounds: Montezuma 27 (Burgess 11, Cook 5, Benson 4, Anderson 3, Strong 3, Shearer 1); Keota 39.
Assists: Montezuma 18 (Shearer 8, Burgess 4, Benson 2, Cook 2, Strong 1, Anderson 1); Keota 9.
Steals: Montezuma 4 (Strong 1, Benson 1, Cook 1, Burgess 1); Keota 9.
Blocks: Montezuma 5 (Strong 3, Burgess 2); Keota none.
Keota leaders: Points: Sawyer Stout 17, Evan Vittetoe 14. Rebounds: Vittetoe 16. Assists: Colten Clarahan 5.