CHERRY TWP— The coach is back, the pressure turned up and the win is in the books.

All appears fine with Moniteau varsity boys basketball following Wednesday night's 74-37 victory over Karns City.

Warrior coach Randy Armagost was on the bench for the first time this season after sitting out a five-game probation period that saw his team go 1-4.

"In practice this week, I decided to turn up the pressure defensively and send a message to our kids,"Armagost said. "I'm tired of sitting around watching us lose."

Message received.

Moniteau scored the game's first seven points, forced 13 turnovers in the first quarter alone and shot out to a 25-7 lead in the game's first eight minutes.

The closest the Gremlins (0-2) got after that was eight points, using an 11-1 run to pull within 26-18 with 6:14 left in the first half.

"We got in a little foul trouble early with our aggressiveness, so we pulled back a little defensively,"Armagost said. "We were getting a lot of points off their turnovers."

The Warriors went back to their pressure defense, finished the half with a 12-3 run and were never challenged thereafter.

"If I was them, I'd have pressured us, too,"Karns City coach Steve Andreassi said. "A lot of our guys just aren't in basketball shape yet.

"There's a big difference between football shape and basketball shape. We're not ready yet. We didn't handle their pressure at all."

Karns City wound up with 35 turnovers — 21 in the first half.

Moniteau placed five players in double figures. Sophomore center Zach Sloan had 18 points, 18 rebounds and blocked five shots. Tyler Armagost contributed 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

Josh Madru came off the bench to score 12 points and block four shots. Freshman point guard Kyle Armagost had 10 points and six assists with Zach McCormick notching 10 points.

The Warriors had a 45-35 edge on the boards and suffered 23 turnovers themselves.

"A lot of our turnovers occurred right after we took the ball from them,"Armagost said. "There was the intensity of the rivalry ... We did some things out there that we don't want to do."

A brief scuffle in the fourth quarter resulted in a player ejection and there were a few technical fouls whistled against both teams.

Three Karns City players — Markus LaVan, Aaron Markle and Brad Fuhrer — fouled out with more than three minutes left in the contest. Kyle Armagost fouled out with 6:30 remaining for Moniteau.

"You're playing your neighboring rival, things aren't going your way and you get frustrated out there,"Andreassi said. "That's going to happen, but you can't let your frustrations boil over.

"This rivalry isn't about pushing and shoving. It's about two hard-nosed, competitive teams. That's what I told my kids and I'm sure Randy told his the same thing."

Brandon Collier had 12 points and five rebounds for Karns City. Evan Olszak had 11 rebounds for the Gremlins.

"They (Moniteau)deserve the credit because they created most of our mistakes,"Andreassi said. "I just want us to learn from this and be a much better team three weeks from now."

"I believe we've got the personnel to play up-tempo basketball,"Armagost said. "This was a step in that direction tonight."

Mitch Hunter stuck back an offensive rebound with three seconds left in the junior varsity game, giving Moniteau a 37-35 victory.

KARNS CITY 37Cody Williams 0-3 1-4 1, Cameron Harp 2-4 0-0 4, Aaron Markle 0-3 0-0 0, Jacob Henry 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Barger 2-4 0-0 5, Brad Fuhrer 1-8 2-2 4, Jesse Garing 0-4 0-0 0, Evan Olszak 1-5 5-6 7, Markus LaVan 1-1 0-0 2, Brandon Collier 4-8 3-5 12, Jarrett LaVan 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 12-45 11-17 37

MONITEAU 74Clayton Casper 3-9 0-0 6, Kyle Armagost 3-9 3-7 10, Tyler Armagost 3-12 12-18 18, Zach McCormick 3-8 4-7 10, Zach Sloan 8-12 2-5 18, Mitch Hunter 0-1 0-0 0, Brandon Bonzo 0-3 0-0 0, Mike George 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Madru 5-7 1-4 12. Totals: 25-61 22-40 74

Karns City 7 14 11 5—37Moniteau 25 13 15 21—743-point goals: Barger, Collier; K.Armagost, Madru

JV: Moniteau, 37-35 (M:Mitch Hunter 12, KC:Jesse Garing 11)

Friday: Redbank Valley at Karns City, West Forest at Moniteau