Whippets open with 70-49 victory

Daily Globe Sports Editor

MANSFIELD — A pair of scoring sprees — one in each half — propelled Shelby to a season-opening 70-49 boys basketball triumph against Madison Friday night.

After trailing a good portion of the opening half, the Whippets put together a 12-2 run to take the lead for good and then an 11-0 surge late in the third period pushed their lead to double digits and the Rams got no closer than 12 the remainder of the evening.

On a night where SHS struggled on the defensive end, the offense came to life over the final two frames to outscore the home team 38-20.

“We were much better offensively to start the third quarter,” said Shelby coach Nathan Loney. “We picked the pace up and started playing faster. We forced a couple of turnovers because we put some pressure on their guards and they made some lackadaisical passes and we came up with steals.”

Madison got as close as 39-36 with 2:11 left in the third stanza on a three-pointer by Jayden Jeffries.

The Whippets answered with consecutive three-pointers by Brazure Roberts and T.J. Pugh to spark the red and gray’s decisive second-half burst. Cody Lantz closed things out with a free throw, a steal he would dunk and then he had another theft and fed Marshall Shepherd for the layin to make it 50-36.

SHS outpointed the Rams 18-9 during quarter No. 3.

After a nine-point first half, Pugh knocked down 17 following the intermission to finish with a game-high 26. He had eight of the them in the third quarter and tallied his team’s first five of the closing eight minutes as the Shelby lead swelled to 16 (5539). His second dunk of the contest, off a steal in his own lane made it 62-43 with 3:03 remaining.

Speaking about the better second half, Loney said “the biggest thing was we started to play fast and got the looks we wanted. We made extra passes. In the first half we were catch and shooting off one or two passes. The second half was four or five passes and someone was getting a wideopen layup or a wideopen three.”

Although the Whippets led 32-29 at the break, Loney was not pleased with what he saw from his defense.

“Our defense was bad… no ball pressure, no running traps, no nothing. I told the kids the key to tonight was make their guards uncomfortable and we did not do that. We were not communicating in our defensive sets, not helping each other out and not being good teammates to each other,” said Loney. “Luckily, we got it going offensively to start the third quarter. Our offense picked up and we kind of wore on them because we were in better shape and rotated more guys in.”

SHS didn’t take its first lead until their was 1:18 left in the opening period on a three-pointer by Andre Hill that made it 14-13.

The Rams led 17-16 after one and were up 21-18 at the 7:15 mark following a bucket by Levi Zehner.

Matters were knotted at 23-all and a free throw by Jeremy Holloway put Shelby in front to stay with 4:51 until halftime. Pugh had seven in the 12-2 run and it was a layin by Lantz that made it 30-23 with 3:12 on the clock.

The Whippets were on top 32-29 at the intermission.

Eight players reached the scoring column and also notching double-figure performances were Lantz (12) and Roberts (11).

Only four players tallied points for the Rams and they were in all in double digits. Luke Pruitt and Zehner each canned 13.

SHS is idle until next Friday and will host Ontario in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference opener. The next night the red and gray travel to Ashland for an independent outing.

SHELBY (70)

Roberts 3 3 11, Hiatt 2 0 4, Shepherd 3 0 6, Pugh 7 9 26, Lantz 5 1 12, Hill 2 0 5, Holloway 1 1 3, Bruskotter 1 0 3, Totals 24 14 70.

MADISON (49)

Brooks 4 4 12, Zehner 5 2 13, Jeffries 4 2 11, Pruitt 6 1 13, Totals 19 9 49.

Shelby ............... 16161820—70 Madison ............ 17 12 9 11 —49

Three-point field goals — Roberts (S) 2, Pugh (S) 3, Lantz (S), Hill (S), Bruskotter (S), Zehner (M), Jeffries (M).