VICTOR – A long week of basketball ended on a high note as the Montezuma Braves carved out a 65-32 road win over HLV on Friday evening, Jan. 31.
“It was a good bounce-back win for us,” said Montezuma Coach Derrick Dengler. “It was a long week for us – four games, with a tough loss on Thursday,” he said.
But the Braves established themselves quickly against HLV, holding the Warriors to single-digit scoring in three quarters.
And on offense, “we shared really, really well, with 18 assists,” Dengler said.
The Braves, now 14-2, led 19-2 after one quarter, 44-8 at the half and 60-21 through three periods.
Montezuma assisted 24 made baskets with those 18 assists, which is a great ratio.
Guard Trey Shearer gave up his prolific point-making role in this one in order to be a distributor, and he came up with 11 assists. He also had four steals. And yes, he scored . . eight points.
Cole Watts led Montezuma scoring with 18 points. He was six-for-10 from the field, and knocked down a trio of three-pointers. He also pulled down five rebounds.
Eddie Burgess had another nice double-double, with 17 points (on six-for-nine shooting), and 12 rebounds. He also had a pair of steals and two blocked shots.
Masin Shearer scored 11 points. He was five-for-nine shooting, and had a three-ball.
Gavin Strong dropped in a pair of three-pointers for the Braves.
Montezuma shot .500 from the field and went 11-for-14 from the foul line. The Braves also picked up just four personal fouls on the night.
HLV shot .341 from the floor, and had just two attempts from the foul line.
NOTE – HLV is coached by a former Montezuma coach and resident, Dennis “Digger” Phelps.
District teams – BGM, English Valleys, HLV, Keota, Lynnville-Sully, Montezuma, Moravia, Moulton-Udell, North Mahaska and Twin Cedars. Pairings will be announced later.
UP NEXT – The Braves host BGM on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Montezuma 19 25 16 5 – 65
HLV 2 6 13 11 – 32
MONTEZUMA (65) – Brydon Henning 0-1, 0-0, 1, 0. Brayden Arendt 1-4, 1-2, 0, 3. Masin Shearer 5-9, 0-0, 0, 3. Connor Van Zee 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Cole Watts 6-10, 3-5, 0, 18. Joey Kercheval 0-0, 0-0, 1, 0. Maguire DeJong 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Trey Shearer 3-8, 2-2, 0, 8. Colton Benson 0-1, 0-0, 1, 0. Owen Cook 1-2, 0-0, 0, 2. Gavin Strong 2-4, 0-0, 0, 6. Eddie Burgess 6-9, 5-5, 1, 17. TOTALS – 24-48, 11-14, 4, 65.
HLV (32)
TOTALS – 15-44, 0-2, 10, 32
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Turnovers: Montezuma 9, HLV 20.
Rebounds: Montezuma 24 (Burgess 12, Watts 5, Arendt 2, Masin Shearer 1, T. Shearer 1, Kercheval 1, team 2); HLV 28.
Three-point goals: Montezuma 6-18 (Watts 3, Strong 2, M. Shearer 1); HLV 2-10.
Steals: T. Shearer 4, Watts 2, M. Shearer 2, Burgess 2, Arendt 1, Cook 1.
Deflections: Watts 2, M. Shearer 1, DeJong 1, T. Shearer 1, Cook 1, Burgess 1.
Blocks: Burgess 2, Benson 1, Watts 1.
