Big first half sends Scott City boys basketball team past Advance

SCOTT CITY -- It didn't matter who the visitors were in the first half of Scott City's game Tuesday night.

They likely would've been in trouble.

The Rams jumped out to a 19-6 lead in the first quarter, staved off a fourth-quarter rally and held on to defeat Advance 69-56 in a boys basketball game.

"It's pretty simple. They came out of the gates, and they punched us in the mouth," Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said. "The bottom line is they outscrapped us, they outrebounded us and they definitely wanted that game more than we did."

Junior Trent Pobst gathered his own miss underneath the basket and scored to spark a 13-2 run for Scott City (7-3) in the final 3 1/2 minutes of the first quarter.

"We were running the floor well. We were spacing the floor well. We were extremely aggressive but under control, which is extremely important," Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "It was huge to get off to a start like that because we knew with how good they are that they were going to come back."

But the Rams didn't stop there.

Scott City sophomore Dylan Keller scored all 10 of his points in the second quarter, during which he was 4 of 5 from the floor.

The Rams added eight points to their lead in the period and held a comfortable 42-21 advantage at halftime. Scott City shot 58 percent (18 of 31) in the first half and was able to score many of its points on second-chance opportunities.

"Our emphasis was to get the ball inside, either penetrating, cutting or posting up, just trying to get the ball inside," Dannenmueller said. "We knew they were going to extend and pressure, so we were going to try to attack the gaps and get in the lane. We knew that if we could do that, it would open up some outside shots. Dylan hit some outside shots for us that were huge after we got some of that stuff around the basket."

Scott City's Trent Pobst drives up against Advance defenders in the fourth quarter Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015 in Scott City, Missouri. (Glenn Landberg)

Junior Austin Ladd and sophomore Dawson Mayo each had six points in the third quarter, allowing Advance (6-5) to trim a point from its lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Hornets shot 25 of 60 (42 percent) from the field and were held in check by a man-to-man defense.

"We haven't played a whole lot of man this year, and we've worked on it a lot. ... This was the most we've had to play it, and I thought we did a decent job," Dannenmueller said. "I thought we covered them well. They got some easy buckets, but I thought Braden [Cox] matched up well with Mayo. He's so strong down there and so physical. When they get the ball down there inside to him and you collapse, you're in trouble because then they kick it to shooters, and I thought Braden did a good job of matching up with him. I thought everyone else did a good job of staying fundamentally sound on their guy."

A basket by senior Dalton Wilson and a trey from the right corner by Ladd began an 11-2 run for the Hornets in the opening minutes of the final period before Dannenmueller called a timeout at the 5:28 mark with his team clinging to a 57-46 lead.

"We were just so worried with that spurt they were going to hit us with, and instead of just attacking it like we did in the first half, we were just kind of afraid we were going to throw it away. If you're sitting here scared that you're going to throw the ball away, it's going to happen," Dannenmueller said. "... In that first half, we were just playing. We weren't thinking."

Wilson scored on his own miss to cut the Rams' lead to single digits, but with only 1:10 remaining in the game, the deficit was too large for the Hornets to overcome.

Scott City's Isiah Berry drives to the basket in the second quarter against Advance Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015 in Scott City, Missouri. (Glenn Landberg)

"They made us work for everything. We struggle so much inside, but I saw some signs tonight out of Mayo and Ladd," Wheetley said. "I thought, especially in the fourth quarter, they picked it up and wanted the ball and started scoring some. It would have been fine if we would have knocked down a few more shots, but that's what happens. If we can get a little inside scoring, it's going to open up our outside, but you can't just rely on 3s. We know that, and we're working on it. They just flat out beat us, bottom line."

Mayo finished with a game-high 18 points, including 10 in the second half. Ladd contributed 15 points, and Wilson scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

"[Mayo] stepped up, and I thought Ladd did, too. We got a little scoring there, and then it opened up some more shots on the outside. I thought Wilson drove in there a little bit. He played pretty good," Wheetley said. "I told them, 'We've got a lot of work to do. We're going to go back to practice tomorrow, and you've got to come in and focus.' ... Our practices have not been good. Our intensity has been down. They just don't seem like they want to be there in practice and working at it."

Five different players reached double figures for Scott City, including senior Brock Uelsmann, who scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the first half. Cox contributed 13 points on a perfect 5 of 5 shooting from the floor. He scored eight of his points in the fourth quarter.

"We were kind of on our heels. I don't know what their run was, but I know we were stuck at 55 points for a while, and he came down and got us a bucket and then got another bucket. He was big for us in that fourth quarter," Dannenmueller said about Cox. "That's what we're all about. We talk about that with our kids. Anybody on our team can step up. We don't care who scores as long as we score."

Pobst also had 13 points, while junior Isiah Berry added 11 points for the Rams, who finished the game 28 of 52 (54 percent) from the field.

The Rams host Chaffee on Friday, and Dannenmueller wants to see his team put together a complete performance for 32 minutes.

"I'm just proud of them. This is a big win for us. That first half was about as good as we could have played," Dannenmueller said. "... If we can take that first half and apply that to an entire game, I really like our team. We've been telling these guys in practice and in games, but we haven't really done it in that big of a game yet. We've done it for a quarter or for a three-minute span, and we've constantly been telling them that we've got to have consistent effort and consistent competitiveness.

"We did it for that whole first half, and it was fun."

Advance 6 15 14 21 -- 56

Scott City 9 23 13 14 -- 69

ADVANCE (56) -- Dawson Mayo 18, Austin Ladd 15, Dalton Wilson 14, Preston Wuebker 6, Brian Whitson 3. FG 25-60, FT 3-4, F 18. (3-pointers: Wuebker 2, Whitson 1. Fouled out: Ladd.)

SCOTT CITY (69) -- Brock Uelsmann 17, Trent Pobst 13, Braden Cox 13, Isiah Berry 11, Dylan Keller 10, Jordan Kluesner 5. FG 28-52, FT 10-20, F 8. (3-pointers: Keller 2, Pobst 1. Fouled out: none.)

JV -- Advance won 42-32.