Fast start pushes Warriors to victory
CHERRY TWP — Moniteau's early run gave the Warriors a comfortable edge.
And West Forest never recovered.
Moniteau led 20-9 after one quarter and went on to rout their KSAC rivals, 60-31, in high school boys basketball Wednesday night.
When Indians coach John Wright called a timeout with 4:56 left in the opening quarter, Moniteau senior forward Nick Morrow had just hit his team's fourth 3-pointer of the game, giving the Warriors a 13-0 lead.
West Forest closed the gap to 14-7 later in the period, but the Indians never were able to put up double-digit points in any quarter.
At the heart of the Indians' anemic offense were 29 turnovers and a 9-of-48 (19 percent) performance from the field.
"I thought we played a good half-court defense," said Moniteau coach Randy Armagost. "They didn't have many open looks tonight."
While the Indians' leading scorer was Jerry Jones with six points, the Warriors featured three players in double figures.
Morrow led the team with 18 points, including four 3-pointers, Matt Buczkowski added 14 points and Josh Howland came off the bench to score 12.
"Between Howland, Tyler Drzemiecki and Aaron Randall, who was sick tonight, those three can come off the bench and score 10 for us on any night," said Armagost. "We have some scorers, but we just have to get them going.
"We've been working on shooting the ball, and I think our offense looked a bit better tonight."
With his team's lead hovering around 25 points late in the fourth quarter, Armagost emptied his bench and all 11 players who dressed saw time on the court.
One aspect of the game that was close was rebounding, with West Forest grabbing 42 boards to the Warriors' 40.
Moniteau (1-2) will travel to Rocky Grove on Friday.
WEST FOREST 31Jerry Jones 1 4-5 6, Phil Lober 2 0-0 4, Jamie Gruzinski 1 0-0 2, Garrison Daum 0 2-5 2, Josh Adams 0 4-4 4, Travis Byers 2 0-0 4, Garrick Daum 1 1-2 3, Seth Sneeringer 1 1-2 4, Tyler Clark 1 0-1 2, Bill Benis 0 0-0 0, Frank Dunkle 0 0-0 0, Jake Dietrich 0 0-0 0, Kyle McPeak 0 0-0 0, Ryan Kaputa 0 0-0 0. Totals: 9 12-19 31.
MONITEAU 60Tyler Armagost 3 0-0 6, Adam Cousins 2 0-0 5, Nick Morrow 7 0-0 18, Josh Loos 0 1-3 1, Matt Buczkowski 4 6-11 14, Josh Howland 4 1-2 12, Tyler Drzemiecki 1 0-0 2, Mike Kosick 1 0-0 2, Clayton Casper 0 0-2 0, Trei Saeler 0 0-1 0, Mitch Czech 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 8-19 60.
West Forest 9 9 4 9—31Moniteau 20 16 11 13—603-point goals: Moniteau 8 (Morrow 4, Howland 3, Cousins)
JV: Moniteau 42-29
Friday: Moniteau at Rocky Grove
