With a start as electric as the guitar playing at halftime, the Montezuma Braves rolled to an 85-35 win over Colfax-Mingo in varsity boys basketball action at home Friday evening, Jan. 22.
With crisp passing, great spacing and expert marksmanship fueling the offense, Montezuma jumped out to a 33-3 first quarter lead. Already out of the barn and well down the road, the Braves upped their lead to 54-11 at halftime and to 76-23 through three quarters.
“It ws great to get our seniors involved and to come out with good focus and intensity,” Braves Coach Derrick Dengler said.
Trey Shearer scored 27 points for the Braves and dropped five three-pointers out of 11 made by Montezuma. What’s more, he had time to dish out 12 assists while scoring that many points! Who does that?
Cole Watts scored 16 points and Eddie Burgess had 14 points, five assists and a dozen rebounds as the Braves moved their records to 13-2 overall and to a league leading 12-1 in South Iowa Cedar League play.
Gavin Strong just missed double figures with nine points. The Braves assisted 24 of their 35 field goals, strong evidence of good team play.
Seven different Braves scored as Montezuma got away to a 22-1 start. By quarter’s end, eight players had hit the scorebook.
Montezuma’s passing was patient in half-court sets. And they got some terrific outlet passing, particularly from Burgess, to get their transition offense off to flying starts. The Braves also came up with 19 steals on the night to help increase Colfax-Mingo’s turnover total.
“We have been moving the ball well lately and we hope to continue that,” Dengler said.
Colfax-Mingo is 3-12 overall and 3-11 against the league.
IT WAS SENIOR NIGHT, with senior cheerleaders, band members and girls and boys basketball players acknowledged between the girls and boys games.
DISTRICT ASSIGNMENTS – have been made for Class 1A. The Braves are one of seven SICL teams in a nine-team district 11. Here are the teams: BGM, Keota, Lynnville-Sully, Melcher-Dallas, Montezuma, North Mahaska, Sigourney, Tri-County and Twin Cedars.
UP NEXT – Montezuma’s girls and boys team host HLV on Tuesday, Jan. 26.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Colfax-Mingo 3 8 12 12 – 35
Montezuma 33 21 22 9 – 85
MONTEZUMA (85)
Cam Johnson 1-2, 1-2, 1, 3. Cole Watts 6-9, 1-1, 0, 16. Trey Shearer 10-15, 2-2, 1, 27. Eddie Burgess 7-8, 0-1, 2, 14. Joey Kercheval 1-2, 1-2, 0, 4. Jack Erselius 0-1,0-0, 0, 0. Masin Shearer 3-7, 0-2, 0, 6. Garrett Watts 0-3, 0-0, 0, 0. Sawyer Tindle 0-1, 0-0, 3, 0. Owen Cook 1-2, 0-0, 0, 2. Jacob Ross 2-3, 0-0, 0, 4. Gavin Strong 4-7, 0-0, 0, 9. Camden Michalek 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Ryan Cheney 0-0, 0-0, 2, 0. TOTALS – 35-60, 5-10, 9, 85.
COLFAX-MINGO (35)
TOTALS – 13-43, 7-10, 8, 35.
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Turnovers: CM 27, Montezuma 10.
Three-point goals: CM 2-12, Montezuma 10-25 (T. Shearer 5-7, C. Watts 3-5, Kercheval 1-2, Strong 1-3, Johnson 0-1, Burgess 0-1, Erselius 0-1, M. Shearer 0-3, Tindle 0-1, Cook 0-1).
Rebounds: CM 26, Montezuma 31 (Burgess 12, T. Shearer 7, C. Watts 3, Cook 2, Ross 2,Strong 2, Johnson 1, Erselius 1, Tindle 1).
Assists: CM 10, Montezuma 24 (T. Shearer 12, Burgess 5, C. Watts 3, Johnson 2, M. Shearer 1, G. Watts 1).
Steals: CM 8, Montezuma 19 (M. Shearer 5, T. Shearer 4, Johnson 2, Burgess 2, Kercheval 2, Strong 2, C. Watts 1, G. Watts 1).
Blocks: none.