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Damon Bryan gets ready to roll into an opening in the lane. Damon
had 18 points and 19 rebounds in Saturday night's win.
Braves extend some streaks at North Mahaska
Jan. 30, 2010
NEW SHARON - P-s-s-s-s-t! Hey, pass it on! The Montezuma Braves boys basketball team may finally be out of that one-step-forward, one-step-back routine.
The Braves turned up the defensive heat in the second half and gradually pulled away for a 50-40 win over North Mahaska on Saturday night.
That's three straight wins for the Braves - all during this past week. And that's four-for-four in wins over the Warhawks over the last two years. For some time, North Mahaska had been a major speed bump for the Braves on the South Iowa Cedar League trail.
The Warhawks came in having won a modest four games in 15 tries. But they've played well of late, putting up 60 points against Keota and losing by just nine on Friday.
North Mahaska worked extremely hard on defense. The Warhawks' man-to-man kept pressure on the ball out front and prevented touches by Montezuma power forward Damon Bryan during first half action.
Bryan had just four points at halftime and the Braves went off leading 21-19.
But Montezuma had thrown up its own formidable defense.
The Braves didn't allow Warhawks scorers Dylan Boyle and Clayton Korrell to get started.
"Victor Bushong and Bryan Stanford did a great job against Boyle," Montezuma coach Derek Schulte said.
In alternating fashion, the two of them started working an effective high-low post game with Bryan during the second quarter which really bore fruit in the second half.
Bryan wound up with 18 points. Stanford and Bushong scored eight and six, respectively, to help give the Braves some front court scoring balance.
Guard D.J Sutfin dropped in 11 points.
And Bryan was having a night doing things other than scoring. Montezuma's charts almost didn't have room for his 19 rebounds. He also swatted down an estimated six to eight shots. "We're not sure, we were missing a statistician tonight," Schulte said. "But Damon was just sitting there waiting for some of those shots to go up, wasn't he?"
Montezuma led 33-27 through three quarters. The Braves protected and extended their lead by making free throws. They were 15-for-23 during the second half.
"Starting in the second quarter, we were doing some good things defensively," Schulte said. "Our guards were preventing dribble penetration. They (the Warhawks) were still at 32 points with just a few minutes left in the game," the coach said. The Braves also kept pressure on North Mahaska's shooters, not allowing them to get their feet set.
"We didn't value the ball real well in the first half," said Schulte, noting that's when nine of the team's 14 turnovers happened.
"We knew it would be a four-quarters battle," Schulte said. "We made free throws until late. You have to find different ways to win and tonight we were able to grind one out."
Brock Davis and Chaz McBirnie each scored nine points for the Warhawks, who are 4-11 against the league and 4-12 overall. Boyle, who averages about 14 points, got just six and Korrell, whose norm is just over eight, had four.
The Braves improved their marks to 11-5 in the SICL and 11-6 overall.
WATCH IT! - at 1 and 7 p.m. on Thursday on Local Channel 3, with Keith Brake and Kaylin Hansen bringing home the action.
NEXT UP - The Braves host BGM on Tuesday evening.
Score by quarters
Montezuma 15 6 12 17 - 50
North Mahaska 9 10 8 13 - 40
Montezuma (50) - Damon Bryan 5, 8-11, 1, 18. Kirk Salnave 0, 0-0, 0, 0. D.J. Sutfin 3, 4-8, 3, 11. Corbin Tompkins 1, 0-0, 2, 2. Bryan Stanford 3, 2-2, 1, 8. Spencer Roorda 0, 0-0, 1, 0. Stephen Vavroch 0, 3-4, 2, 3. Levi Hoksbergen 1, 0-0, 1, 2. Victor Bushong 2, 0-0, 4, 6. TOTALS - 16, 17-25, 15, 50.
North Mahaska (40) - Kody Lake 0, 3-4, 2, 3. Jordan Rook 0, 0-0, 0, 0. Clayton Korrell 1, 2-4, 2, 4. Cody Larson 2, 0-0, 5, 5. Chaz McBirnie 4, 1-2, 1, 9. Dylan Boyle 3, 0-2, 4, 6. Brock Davis 3, 2-4, 3, 9. Brody Casteneda 2, 0-0, 3, 4. TOTALS - 15, 8-16, 20, 40.
Three-point goals - Montezuma 1 (Sutfin 1). North Mahsaka 2 (Larson 1, Davis 1).
Fouled out - Montezuma - none. North Mahaska (Larson, :12.8, 4th quarter).
Turnovers - Montezuma 14, North Mahaska 10.
Braves rebound leaders - Bryan 19, Hoksbergen 7, Stanford 5.
(Steals, Assists and Blocks not available for this game).
Line score legend - Field goals made, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Montezuma's defense attacks the ball at North Mahaska.
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