Century boys top C. Milton Wright, 72-56
It is the holiday season and the weather outside was frightful. Century boys basketball made sure it was raining, too. Raining 3-pointers, that is. The Knights hit 14 threes from a combination of five players, building a sizeable first-quarter lead and never looking back en route to a 72-56 win over visiting C. Milton Wright on Thursday.
Century (4-1) was led by Andrew Marcinko’s 17 points, while Jackson Smith contributed 15. Dylan Sander, Larry Thompson, and Jordan Ross all had 15 points to pace the Mustangs (4-2).
“We’ve been struggling to shoot the ball early in the season, but the last couple of games we’ve started to get going, and we’re shooting the ball really good,” Century coach George Wunder said. “I also liked the way we were making those passes to get those open threes. We’re finally shooting the ball like I know we’re capable of.”
After Sander and Kyle Ashman each hit layups to give the Mustangs a 4-0 lead, Century got its offense going. After two Benjamin Chenowith free throws got the Knights on the board, Marcinko scored the next 12 points — three 3-pointers and another old-fashioned three-point play. Century led 14-4 after the first quarter.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter. Of the first six field goals of the quarter, five came from behind the 3-point line. First by Smith, then Jake Winkles, then Marcinko, then Peyton Conrad and then another by Smith again to run the lead to 31-12.
When Century wasn’t scoring, the Knights were playing aggressive, in-your-face defense. That led to opportunities on the offensive end, and the Knights just kept finding the open shooters and cashing in.
The Mustangs started to hit some threes of their own in the third quarter. Both Ross and Thompson had two apiece in the third quarter to try and cut into the Century lead, but the Knights just weren’t having any of it.
“They were a tough defensive team, but my teammates were able to drive [to the basket], which pulled them inside and left those shots open,” Smith said. “We’ve been practicing driving and kicking the ball back out to the open shooter, and it worked out for us tonight.”
“Once the first one goes in, we just start to get hot,” Marcinko said. “It all starts on the defensive end. When we start playing tough defense, it translates into offense, and that’s what coach has been preaching to us all year so far.”
Mustangs coach Mario Smith said he wasn’t surprised by the Knights’ shooting.
“We knew that we could shoot the ball really well,” he said. “Our core group of guys are all sophomores, and they’ve never been in this type of environment. All credit to Century for shooting the ball as well as they did. We thought [Marcinko] and [Winkles] could shoot the 3, but they had several others who did, too. Some of our rotations didn’t move as good as we needed them to, and we have to get better there. Then things started to fall apart a little, and you know how that goes.”