BAXTER – The Montezuma Braves were not officially conducting a clinic Saturday night, Jan. 25, in their game against Baxter.
But at times in a 74-43 Braves victory, it looked that way.
A tight zone defense, sharp passing, and another great night of shooting were the keys in taking the Braves to 11-1 on the season against a Baxter team that had posted a 10-2 record coming into this game.
For Baxter, it was a case of ‘who do you guard’?
Cole Watts scored 28 points, Trey Shearer threw down 23 and Eddie Burgess scored 15 for the Braves.
Those three did it with 28-for-39 shooting from the floor. That’s 72 percent.
They were passing it to each other. Trey Shearer and Watts had five assists each, Burgess had four – and Masin Shearer had four. The Braves assisted 21 of their 31 made field goals.
“Offensively, we attacked the paint well and were able to get easy shots,” Braves Coach Derrick Dengler said.
Montezuma led 24-11 after one quarter, 39-19 at the half and 61-32 through three periods.
The Braves shot .585 from the field.
Montezuma defended well, too. Baxter shot .308 on 16-for-52.
“We played well defensively,” Dengler said. “We were able to switch to zone and limit them to outside shots.”
The Bolts made eight three-pointers, but it took them 27 attempts – more than half their shots on the night – to make them.
Watts got his 28 points on 11-for-13 shooting, including four-of-six from behind the three-point arc. He had nine rebounds and five assists.
Eddie Burgess had another double-double, adding 10 rebounds to his 15 points. He was seven-for-nine from the field.
And Trey Shearer got his 23 on 10-for-17 shooting from the field. He added five assists, two steals, a deflection and a block.
UP NEXT – Montezuma is at North Mahaska Monday evening, Jan. 27.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Montezuma 24 15 22 13 – 74
Baxter 19 8 13 11 – 43
MONTEZUMA (74) – Brydon Henning 0-1, 0-0, 0, 0. Brayden Arendt 1-4, 0-1, 2, 2. M. Shearer 2-6, 0-0, 2, 6. Cole Watts 11-13, 2-3, 0, 28. Joey Kercheval 0-2, 0-0, 2, 0. Maguire DeJong 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Trey Shearer 10-17, 3-6, 1, 23. Owen Cook 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Gavin Strong 0-1, 0-0, 0, 0. Eddie Burgess 7-9, 1-1, 1, 15. TOTALS – 31-53, 6-11, 9, 74.
BAXTER (43)
TOTALS – 16-52, 3-6, 11, 43.
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal foul, total points.
Turnovers: Montezuma 11, Baxter 15.
Rebounds: Montezuma 35 (Burgess 10, Watts 9, Cook 5, M. Shearer 3, T. Shearer 3, Strong 2, team 3); Baxter 25.
Three-point goals: Montezuma 6-18 (Watts 4, M. Shearer 2); Baxter 8-27.
Assists: T. Shearer 5, Watts 5, M. Shearer 4, Burgess 4, Cook 2, Arendt 1).
Steals: Watts 3, Cook 3, Arendt 2, T. Shearer 2, team 1.
Deflections: M. Shearer 1, T. Shearer 1, Burgess 1.
Blocks: Watts 1, T. Shearer 1, Burgess 1.
Took charge: Burgess 1.