Wright City overcame early foul trouble in their 35-point win over New Haven Friday night. 

The Wildcats moved to 3-2 on the season with a 65-30 win over the Shamrocks last week. Wright City opened the third quarter on a 21-2 run to put Friday night’s game out of reach. The Wildcats outscored New Haven 25-6 in the third quarter to take a commanding 61-28 lead into the final quarter. 

Wright City senior Denzel Dowdy, who finished tied for the team lead with 12 points and four steals, said Wright City’s focus heading into the second half was to stay composed. He referenced the foul trouble the Wildcats battled in the first half. 

“Really just staying composed and just coming back out and setting the tempo again for the second half and just going 100,” Dowdy said. “Keeping it going the entire time, just not stopping.”

With multiple starters battling foul trouble, Wright City turned to their bench in the first half. The bench players for the Wildcats scored 21 points in the game, including eight of their 17 first quarter points. 

Wright City head coach Ken Brown said the bench “did a fantastic job” in Friday night’s win. He credited Hunter Bohannan for his defense on New Haven senior Andrew Noelke, who scored 15 points in the first half. 

“He (Bohannan) might not show up on the scoreboard but he came in, got rebounds, played tough on number 44 (Noelke),” Brown said. “He was the difference a lot in the first half.”

Wright City built a 20-8 lead less than one minute into the second quarter on Draiden Edwards’ three point basket before New Haven went on a 6-0 run to trim the Wildcat lead to six points with just under six minutes in the half. Wright City senior Chris Kornfeld responded with nine of his 12 points on three three-point field goals to help Wright City regain a double digit lead. Wright City led 30-18 after his third three point field goal of the second quarter. 

“My shot, it wasn’t feeling good in warmups,” Kornfeld said. “I came in, I air balled the first one and then after that, I mean, every shot that came out of my hand pretty well. It felt good all game really.”

The Wright City defense converted multiple turnovers into points in their blowout win Friday night. The Wildcats registered 17 steals in the win. 

Head coach Ken Brown said the Wildcats were being “overly aggressive” early on in the game. Starting point guard Duan McRoberts and starting forward Carle’on Jones both had two fouls in the first quarter. 

“It’s a fine line. We’ve got to make sure we understand that we can pressure, but we don’t want to make sure that we be too aggressive,” Brown said. 

Dowdy and Kornfeld led Wright City with 12 points apiece. Jerry Stanford also reached double figures with 10 points. Dowdy led the Wildcats with five rebounds and finished tied with McRoberts for the team lead with four steals. Stanford led the Wildcats with five assists.