CHERRY TWP — It looked more like an MMA cage match than a high school basketball game.

The only things missing were Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture.

Moniteau and A-C Valley combined for 45 fouls, 59 turnovers, 104 missed shots and a whole lot of offensive rebounds.

In the end, the Warriors made fewer mistakes and managed to find a little more offense in a 59-53 home Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference South win Wednesday night.

“It was a sloppy, sloppy game,” said Moniteau boys basketball coach Randy Armagost.

It also was a physical one.

“It was an intense game,” said A-C Valley coach Jim Marron. “We just made way too many mistakes.”

It wasn't a good night to be a shooter, however.

Early on it was apparent what kind of game this was going to be.

Both teams were in the bonus before the first quarter was six minutes old and the teams combined to shoot 6-of-35 from the field in the first eight minutes.

Moniteau (10-3, 3-0), though, was able to open up an 18-8 lead with 5:40 remaining in the second quarter before A-C Valley made a run.

The Falcons (5-6, 2-2) were able to draw even late in the first half before Jonathon Loos hit a 3-pointer near the buzzer to give Moniteau a 28-25 lead at the half.

Loos' 3-pointer was the only one either team made on the night. Moniteau was 1-of-12 and A-C Valley 0-of-15 from behind the arc.

More problematic was the shooting inside.

“I don't know how many layups we missed,” Marron said. “And they were easy, uncontested ones. I don't think we've missed that many combined all year. If we would have made those, we could have won this game by 20.”

As it was, neither team could finish inside.

Ryan Bartley scored 28 points for A-C Valley and added 23 rebounds. He had 14 offensive boards on a 10-of-30 shooting night.

“Ryan played a wonderful game tonight,” Marron said.

He wasn't enough, however.

A-C Valley led briefly in the third quarter, but Moniteau was able to pull away in the fourth quarter thanks in large part to the free throw shooting of Kyle Armagost and Colton Cumberland.

The duo combined to make 10 of their 12 attempts from the line to ice the game.

Armagost finished with 23 points and 20 rebounds. He earned every point.

The Falcons' plan on defense was to take Armagost away. For much of the game A-C Valley played a box-and-one defense and shaded another player to him when he penetrated.

It led to a 5-of-20 shooting night.

Randy Armagost wasn't happy.

The coach said he knew A-C Valley would try to take his son and senior guard away and the Warriors planned for that in practice leading up to the game.

“That was our plan. Get Kyle the ball, make them triple team him, make the pass and hit the open shot,” Randy Armagost said.

It didn't quite work out that way, however.

Moniteau shot a woeful 24 percent from the floor and committed 20 turnovers. A-C Valley wasn't much better, shooting 31 percent and coughing the ball up a staggering 39 times.

“I wanted to prove we could win this way, without relying so much on Kyle,” Randy Armagost said. “We decided to change our approach. We gutted it out and won the game. That is important. We were able to win.”

A-C VALLEY 53Brody Irwin 5-15 0-1 10, Ryan Bartley 10-30 8-11 28, Kevin Kaufman 3-8 0-2 6, Jeff Eaton 1-7 0-0 2, Landon Delisio 1-7 0-0 2, Jay Kaufman 1-2 2-4 4, Cole Terwilliger 1-1 1-2 3, Keaton King 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 21-68 11-20 53.

MONITEAU 59Kyle Armagost 5-20 13-18 23, Ethan Pry 5-15 0-2 10, Andrew Armagost 1-12 3-4 5, Joey Deal 2-2 0-0 4, Jonathan Loos 4-17 2-3 10, Joe Holfelder 0-5 0-0 0, Brayden McCorry 0-0 0-0 0, Colton Cumberland 0-2 4-4 4, Denny Pry 1-2 0-0 2.

Totals: 18-75 22-31 59.

A-C Valley 6 19 15 13—53Moniteau 8 20 12 19—593-point goals: A-C Valley 0; Moniteau 1 (Loos).

JV Score: Moniteau 59-35

Friday: Karns City at A-C Valley; Moniteau at Keystone