CARDINALS

to open the third quarter while Harmony Grove’s Joseph Gatti and Josh Prather each connected on a 3-pointer. Despite the sloppy play at times, the Cobras maintained a comfortable 46-31 advantage entering the final frame. Sophomore forward Andrew Overton scored six points for Fountain Lake in the third period.

“Whenever we turned it over, we just went to the next play and tried to get a stop,” said Dettmering. “We tried to neutralize some of our mistakes and make up for it after we made a bad play.”

Harmony Grove’s Jared Deneen pulled the Cardinals within 53-37 early in the fourth quarter before the Cobras secured the victory in style.

Sophomore Marcus Needles, junior Riley Hood, junior Ahman Johnson and sophomore Rodrigo Vasquez combined for 18 points as Fountain Lake closed the game on a 21-0 run to set the final margin.

Overton, Ahman Johnson and senior Cade Dodge led the Cobras with 12 points each. Senior Parion Johnson scored 10 points and junior Jordan Mungle added nine points on three shots from behind the arc.

“That is who we are,” Dettmering said. “We don’t have a guy that is going to lead us in scoring every night. We kind of take turns on who our top scorers are and share the ball. That is who we’ve got to be. We are kind of a defensive-minded team, but offensively we try to get everybody involved and they have gotten better at that. It is a process that we are continuing.”

Dodge and Mungle each buried a 3-pointer in the first quarter, while Ahman Johnson added four points of his own as Fountain Lake opened the game on a 13-2 run to set the tone defensively.

“Getting off to a good start like that is obviously to our advantage,” said Dettmering. “We kind of used our pressure to get us some of those little runs in the game. We’d have six-, seven-, eight-point runs here and there, and it gave us a little bump periodically throughout the game.”

Harmony Grove sophomore guard Tyler Nuckols scored four points in the first quarter, knocking down a trey in the final minutes to pull the Cardinals within 13-6.

An 8-2 run by the Cobras pushed the lead back to 23-10 midway through the second period, and Mungle buried two 3-pointers later in the frame as Fountain Lake took a commanding 35-19 lead into halftime.

Nuckols paced Harmony Grove with 10 points, while senior Braden Carmen and Gatti each scored six points and Prather finished with five points.

Fountain Lake’s next three games are on the road, beginning Tuesday night at Arkadelphia (4-12, 2-5).

“We’re playing with a lot of confidence, but when you are on the road, you’ve got to match intensity,” Dettmering said. “Going to Arkadelphia, they are a good team and everybody plays a little bit better at home. We will need to be better with our decision-making and be sharp with our focus.”

* Fountain Lake’s Asa Westerman outscored Harmony Grove single-handedly as the junior Cobras (4-10) cruised to a 47-10 win Friday night at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium-Sammy Lambert Court.

Westerman led all scorers with 12 points and Noah Futch added 10 points. The junior Cobras led 17-3 at the end of the first quarter and 34-5 at the half before coasting with a 13-5 advantage over the last two quarters.

Fountain Lake plays Arkadelphia Thursday night.