Meadow Heights boys basketball team ends district drought, reaches semis

BISMARCK, Mo. -- Solid defense proved to be the difference in the Meadow Heights boys basketball team's win Tuesday night.

After shooting 25 percent from the field and clinging to a two-point lead at halftime, the Panthers forced turnovers, came up with rebounds and built a 14-point lead in the second half.

The end result was a 61-47 victory for third-seeded Meadow Heights over No. 6 Valley of Caledonia in a Class 2 District 3 quarterfinal at Bismarck High School.

Meadow Heights coach Mark Verticchio said it was the first district win for the Panthers in six seasons.

"We had our sights set on winning 10 games this season and we bumped that up to 17," Verticchio said. "To get that is a huge deal, but we couldn't get going and almost didn't handle this one the right way. We could not relax. They were tight from the beginning to the end. It didn't matter who had the ball, we just could not make our shots early on. Nick Mayfield and Spencer Bragg played the best defense I've seen all season and kept us in it. I'm not sure we win without those two. It is a district win, and that's a big deal. I'd rather focus on the positives rather than worry about what we did wrong."

Bragg scored eight points while Mayfield had five, but Verticchio said their rebounding and timely steals and baskets mattered most to him and the Panthers.

"Nick just played great defense, he scored four or five points and got some nice rebounds," Verticchio said. "When our team couldn't get going, Spencer came up and hit a couple big 3's for us."

The two teams stayed within at least three points of each other for the entire first half. The game was tied at 20-20 with 12 seconds to play in the first half until Mayfield hit a jumper in the paint with three seconds left to give Meadow Heights a 22-20 lead at the break.

At halftime, Verticchio preached the importance of getting better looks and not relying so much on the 3.

"I told them in there at halftime, 'You guys are falling in love with the 3-ball,' and we're not a good 3-point shooting team, never have been," Verticchio said. "We did not take advantage of our inside presence either. With [Tyler] Cook at 6-foot-3 and [Devon] Wilfong at 6-foot-2, that's where we should have been looking. That's where Mayfield came in because at about 5-foot-10, he came in and scored about 10 points from there. Slowly after that, everybody kind of followed suit and that began to open it up outside."

The Panthers came out strong in the third, beginning with a 14-2 spurt, which helped them push the lead to 36-22 with 4 minutes, 36 seconds left in the quarter. Valley responded with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 38-30 at the end of the fourth.

"I told them we needed to step up the defense because we weren't hitting our shots during that time, so we had to create from our defense and they did a nice job on that," Verticchio said. "We got that lead up to 14, it went down to eight and then we got lucky with another run and kind of pulled away."

The Panthers heeded their coach's advice and came through defensively in the fourth. Bragg and sophomore Jacob Hunt each came up with back-to-back steals and put in easy layups to start the the final quarter, which spurred a 10-0 run. Bragg and Hunt each also had a 3 during that span.

Hunt finished with 14 points to lead Meadow Heights while Bragg and Cook each added eight.

Meadow Heights will play second-seeded Valle Catholic in a semifinal at 7:15 p.m. Thursday.

Verticchio said his team will have to play much better if it has any hopes of defeating the Warriors.

"I've seen them three times this season and they always look good," Verticchio said. "We don't match up with them really in anything, but I'll tell you the biggest difference is age. They start four seniors where we might only start one. So we just have to go play and really play our best game of the year. I told them, 'You have to stay with them early and not get blown out early. If you do that, there's a chance.' So that's about all we can ask for and what it's going to take to beat those guys."

Valley 10 10 10 17 -- 47

Meadow Heights 12 10 16 23 -- 61

VALLEY (47) -- Kohen Waller 27, Logan Lucas 7, Zach Turner 5, Ethan Civey 4, Aaron Davis 4. FG 16, FT 12-23, F 17 (3-pointers: Waller 1, Lucas 1, Turner 1. Fouled out: Lucas, Ethan Nipper.)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (61) -- Jacob Hunt 14, Jacob Douglas 13, Spencer Bragg 8, Tyler Cook 8, Lane Baremore 7, Justin McGuire 6, Nick Mayfield 5. FG 22, FT 13-28, F 18 (3-pointers: Hunt 2, Bragg 2. Fouled out: none.)