Cardinals Humble Charleston

FARMINGTON — Charleston got a dose of Farmington’s emphasis on “force tempo” with the Class 4A Cardinals handing out an 88-45 nonconference loss to the Class 3A Tigers on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Farmington coach Johnny Taylor likes to play fast and the Cardinals displayed every intention of carrying out his wishes jumping all over Charleston. Farmington (5-3) split its points among 12 players with 7 different Cardinals combining to make a dozen 3-pointers as the school celebrated senior night. The Cardinals also racked up 25 assists playing unselfish basketball to go with 12 steals and accumulated 13 deflections, 12 offensive rebounds and 32 total rebounds.

“I’m really happy for our seniors. Every senior got in the stat book in some way,” Johnny Taylor said. “Our six seniors have invested a lot of time and energy in our program.”

Senior Logan Burch drew a pair of charges. Also scoring for the Cardinals were Nathan Monroe, 10; Decory Thomas, 9; while Carson Simmons added 8 points and 8 rebounds and Caleb Blakely had 7 points and 6 rebounds.

Senior Roman Carlson nailed five 3-pointers scoring 17 points with 4 rebounds and freshman Layne Taylor, the coach’s son, added 13 of his 14 points in the first half as the Cardinals opened up a 54-24 lead at intermission.

A commanding lead presented more opportunities for Johnny Taylor to refine his team.

“We were working on our zone once we had the lead,” Johnny Taylor said. “That was our length lineup we were trying out. That group did a really good job.”

Farmington committed no fouls until 9 seconds remained in the third. The Cardinals were whistled for only 4 fouls throughout the entire second half.

Charleston had mini 4-0 runs twice in the quarter only to watch Farmington outperform them while seemingly never standing still.

Carlson’s 3- pointer, a putback by Monroe and a free-throw by Layne Taylor upped the margin back to 60- 28. The three scores came in about a minute-anda-half.

Charleston scored the next four points before Farmington knocked down a trio of 3-pointers by Samuel Wells, Thomas and Maddox Mahan then go inside to get layups from Noah Farmer and James Payne finishing out the third quarter with a 73-41 advantage.

Johnny Taylor celebrated the fact seniors on the roster logged a lot of minutes on the court, while noting two seniors hit threes who normally aren’t going to take those shots.

Johnny Taylor emptied his bench, but that hardly

slowed down the scoring. Payne threw consecutive long outlets over the Tigers in the final seconds and Thomas scored the last of 8 unanswered Farmington points to close out the contest — winning big, 88-45.

Sophomore Brandon Scott was the only Tiger in double figures with 20.

FARMINGTON 88, CHARLESTON 45

Charleston 12 12 17 4 — 45 Farmington 27 27 19 15 — 88 Charleston: Brandon Scott 7 2-2

20, Tyton Jones 3 0-0 8, Ransom Merechleg 3 1-4 7, Trenton

Goodson 1 0-0 3, Toby Smith 1 1-2 3, Christian Shelton 1 0-0 2, Sebastian Gaona 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 4-8 45. Farmington (5-3): Roman Carlson 6 0-0 17, Layne Taylor 5 3-4 14, Nathan Monroe 5 0-0 10, Decory Thomas 3 2-4 9, Carson Simmons 4 0-0 8, Caleb Blakely 3 1-2 7, Maddox Mahan 2 0-0 6, James Payne 2 0-0 5, Avery Benton 1 2-2 4, Samuel Wells 1 0-0 3, Carson Ramer 1 0-0 3, Noah Farmer 1 0-0 2. Totals 34 8-12 88. 3-Point Goals — Farmington 12 (Carlson 5, Mahan 2, Taylor, Payne, Ramer, Thomas, Wells), Charleston 7 (Scott 4, Jones 2, Goodson). Rebounds — Farmington 32 (Payne 7). Assists — Farmington 25 (Taylor 7). Steals — Farmington 12 (Blakely 3, Taylor 3). Blocks — Farmington 0.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington senior James Payne gets a wide open layup in the half-court offense set up by teammate, Gavin Spurlock, who dishes out the assist. The Cardinals blasted Charleston, 88-45, in non conference boys basketball action on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Farmington reserve guard Gavin Spurlock lulls Charleston into thinking they forced him out-of-bounds, only to pass the ball to teammate James Payne (not in photo), who cut to the front of the rim to receive the ball in position for an easy score.