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Balanced offense pushes Western boys past Monticello

Photo by Bart Isley

Nobody from Western’s boys basketball team scored in double figures and that usually would indicate a problem.

 

Friday night though, it was just an odd statistical glitch in an efficient 65-36 victory over Monticello.

 

“We were able to get our starters out of there pretty early and that was a good thing,” said Western coach Darren Maynard. “Our bench played really well and we had some really nice balance. Eli Yordy played really well off the bench.”

 

Yordy finished tied for the team high with nine points on three second half 3-pointers.

 

Seven Western players scored eight or nine points each and knocked down nine 3-pointers. Western jumped out to an 11-0 lead and cruised from there. Garrett Payne scored his eight points in the first quarter and Chris McGahren scored five of his nine points in the opening frame to build a 19-7 lead. Western also went 10-for-13 from the line as a team, with the bulk of those coming in the second quarter as the Warriors’ post players started to establish themselves. Tommy Mangrum scored six second quarter points and finished with four rebounds.

 

“Jed (Strickland) played really well, he’s stringing a bunch of good games together,” Maynard said. “I thought that was a big lift and Tommy is getting better every day. Teo (Rampini) had some foul trouble in the first half but then he played really well in the second half.”

 

Strickland finished with nine points, three rebounds and drew two charges.

 

Payne led the Warriors with seven rebounds. Rampini scored nine points and had four assists and four steals. Charlie Weyher had five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Gabe Nafzinger scored eight points including two 3-pointers.

 

Dean Lockley led Monticello with 12 points while Kobi Copeland scored 11.

 

Western plays Covenant Saturday night at 7 p.m. while the Mustangs will try and bounce back at home against Powhatan.

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