It was lights out for the Wright City basketball team on Tuesday, as it disregarded its fifth seed and demolished No. 4 Wellsville 77-43 in the opening round of the Clopton Tournament.The Wildcats …
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It was lights out for the Wright City basketball team on Tuesday, as it disregarded its fifth seed and demolished No. 4 Wellsville 77-43 in the opening round of the Clopton Tournament.The Wildcats drained a season-best eight three-pointers to score a season-high point total.“We had a hot night shooting the ball from the outside,” said Coach Rick Halteman. “We also had some pretty good balance.” Senior Bret Noble dropped 21 points, while classmate Ty Davis added 20 points. But perhaps more importantly, the Wildcats had six players contribute at least two buckets a piece. “We’re doing a better job of pushing the floor,” said Halteman. “With our guards, we’re trying to get up and down the court and put the pressure on the other team and don’t let the defense get set.”Wright City surged out to a 23-8 lead after the opening quarter and duplicated that output on the way to a 46-22 halftime advantage.“I had some concerns coming off the break, but we kind of picked up from where we left off against Bowling Green,” said Halteman.A major part of the Wildcats’ success came from forcing Wellsville into 20 turnovers with their pressure defense.“We had really good help side defense and didn’t allow them to do what they wanted,” said Halteman. “We played mostly man defense against them and spread the floor.”Luke Bruning has been a pivotal defensive player for the Wildcats all season, but he was able to contribute 10 points on the offensive end this time as well.“He and several other guys really stepped up to chip in on offense tonight,” said Halteman.The Wildcats led 65-37 after three quarters, riding Davis’ selflessness with the ball, as he racked up 15 assists.“Ty did a good job of distributing the ball, and a lot of our threes came off him driving and kicking,” said Halteman.Devin Telkamp added nine points, while Christian Thompson scored seven and Chance Ludy had six points.Halteman believes the Wildcats are better than the fifth seed they were awarded, but they have just recently begun to prove that.“We turned the corner at Elsberry and have really started playing better the last three games,” said Halteman.NOBLE NETS 21Derrick Forsythe photo.
