NEW SHARON – The North Mahaska boys gave Montezuma a battle in the first half of their game Monday evening, Jan. 27.
But, the Braves have a lot of weapons. One of them is defense, which became more active after the Braves led just 33-27 at halftime.
Montezuma held the Warhawks to 12 points in the second half, and sped away to a 58-39 win.
Trey Shearer scored 35 cat-quick points for Montezuma, mostly against man-to-man defenses.
Shearer had 23 points at the half, and scored 10 more in the third quarter as the Braves expanded their lead to 47-35. “Trey kept us afloat in the first half, when we had some foul trouble,” Braves Coach Derrick Dengler said. “The game was kind of a grinder, Dengler said. “North Mahaska has really improved. They have some young players with good size – 6-2 and 6-3, with lanky arms. They bothered us some on the defensive end,” the coach said.
The Braves did some crisp passing during fourth quarter play, and caught Eddie Burgess inside for several basket in which Burgess caught the ball and laid it in, basically in one arm sweep. Burgess scored eight points on four-for-five shooting.
“We had just enough rebounds (26, to North Mahaska’s 29),” said Dengler. “And, we defended well enough.”
Addy Bollman, a 6-4 junior, scored 15 points in the first half, but none in the second as Montezuma did a better job of identifying where he was at.
Blake Readshaw scored eight, but was limited to one basket – a trey – during the second half.
“We held on, and extended it at the end with free throws,” Dengler said.
After giving up an 18-point first quarter, Montezuma’s defenses turned out quarters of nine, eight and four points, respectively. The Braves limited the Warhawks to .319 field goal shooting, while shooting .500 themselves.
Shearer’s night included 13-for-21 field goal shooting. He made four three-pointers, dished three assists, had two steals, three deflections and a blocked shot.
Cole Watts scored nine for the Braves and tied Burgess for rebounds honors with six.
North Mahaska fell to 5-7 on the season.
The Braves are 12-1.
UP NEXT – Montezuma hosts Colfax-Mingo on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Montezuma 21 12 14 11 – 58
North Mahaska 18 9 8 4 – 39
MONTEZUMA (58) – Brayden Arendt 1-2, 0-0, 0, 3. Masin Shearer 1-6, 0-1, 1, 3. Cole Watts 3-9, 3-4, 3, 9. Joey Kercheval 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Trey Shearer 13-21, 5-6, 1, 35. Owen Cook 0-0, 0-0, 2, 0. Eddie Burgess 4-5, 0-0, 4, 8. Brody Chidester 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. TOTALS – 22-44, 8-11, 11, 58.
NORTH MAHASKA (39)
TOTALS – 15-47, 5-8, 15, 39.
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Turnovers: Montezuma 4, North Mahaska 13.
Rebounds: Montezuma 26 (Watts 6, Burgess 6, Cook 4, T. Shearer 3, Arendt 2, M. Shearer 1, Kercheval 1, Chidester 1, team 2); North Mahaska 29.
Three-point goals: Montezuma 6-20 (T. Shearer 4, Arendt 1, M. Shearer 1); North Mahaska 4-21.
Assists: T. Shearer 3, Arendt 1, M. Shearer 1, Watts 1, Burgess 1.
Steals: Burgess 4, T. Shearer 2, Watts 1.
Deflections: T. Shearer 3, M. Shearer 1, Watts 1, Burgess 1, team 1.
Blocks: T. Shearer 1, Burgess 1.
