Randy Armagost

KARNS CITY — The Moniteau boys basketball team seems to be playing its best basketball of the season.

Now, if only Warriors coach Randy Armagost could get his team to be a little more selfish.

"We could be by the hoop, 2 feet away, and pass the ball," said Armagost. "We're moving the ball really well. They're very unselfish, but it's one of the reasons we're playing better."

Leading 10-9, Moniteau went on a 15-0 run to take a 25-9 lead early in the second quarter and rolled to a 65-33 KSAC victory Tuesday.

"No. 1, Moniteau killed us on the offensive rebounds," said Karns City coach Steve Andreassi. "We talked about that before the game.

"They have big bodies and that's their forte. They can put it back in and that killed us all night,"Andreassi added.

After the Warriors (8-12, 8-8) made their run, the Gremlins' Aaron Markle and Jesse Garing sandwiched baskets around a Tyler Armagost score to make it 27-13.

Zach Sloan and Markle exchanged baskets to make it a 29-15 game with 4:11 left before halftime.

From that point, the Warriors seized control, closing out the half on a 12-2 run, then scoring the first 17 points of the third quarter to take a 58-17 lead with 2:35 left in the frame and activated the mercy rule.

In that first half alone, Sloan and Armagost had 10 points apiece, McCormick nine and Kyle Armagost had eight. Sloan, Kyle Armagost and Tyler Armagost each finished with 14 points, McCormick had nine and Josh Madru had seven.

"We've gotten balanced scoring in our last eight games," said coach Armagost.

That's one aspect, along with the unselfish play, that reminds Armagost of the 2005 team.

"We went 0-10 to start the season, then went 10-4," said Armagost. "We didn't make the playoffs. With our conference record, we were one spot off.

"This is an identical team. They're playing well, playing together. I like our chances as long as we keep playing good defense."

The Gremlins (3-14, 3-13) were held to 21 points over the first three quarters before scoring 12 in the final frame with the running clock. A 9-0 run helped Karns City pull to 60-28 with 3:36 to play, but the squad could get no closer the rest of the way.""We've got one practice and two games left," said Andreassi. "We've never thrown in the towel yet. ... We'll still have the same mind-set. Things just haven't turned out like we hoped."<B>MONITEAU 65Zach Sloan 6 2-6 14, Kyle Armagost 7 0-0 14, Tyler Armagost 6 2-3 14, Josh Madru 3 0-2 7, Zach McCormick 3 3-4 9, Heath Lominski 0 0-0 0, Mitch Hunter 1 0-0 3, Jereme Loos 0 0-0 0, Lewis Martino 0 0-0 0, Brandon Bonzo 2 0-0 4, Mike George 0 0-0 0, Tyler Glenn 0 0-0 0. </B>Totals: 28 7-15 65.<B>KARNSCITY33Cody Williams 2 0-0 4, Aaron Markle 3 0-1 6, Tyler Barger 1 0-1 2, Evan Olszak 2 1-1 5, Brandon Collier 0 2-2 2, Cameron Harp 1 0-0 2, Jacob Henry 0 0-0 0, Brad Fuhrer 0 2-2 2, Jesse Garing 3 1-2 7, Kyle Barger 1 0-0 2, Brandyn Bowser 0 1-2 1.</B> Totals: 13 7-10 33.<B>Moniteau 20 21 19 5—65Karns City 9 8 4 12—333-point goals:</B> Madru, Hunter<B>JV:</B> Moniteau, 43-40<B>Thursday:</B> A-C Valley at Moniteau; Karns City at Punxsutawney

Andreassi