Cardinals Crash Saints’ Party

FARMINGTON BOYS VICTORIOUS 86-63 IN SPRINGDALE

SPRINGDALE — Speed and quickness prevailed for Farmington in a battle against Shiloh Christian’s physicality and shot-blocking on Tuesday, Feb. 1, with the Cardinals winning big on the road, 86-63.

Farmington sophomore Layne Taylor picked his spots, making four 3-pointers to lead all scorers with 28 points while contributing six steals and a blocked shot on defense. His theft of a rebound and easy basket broke the ice. He followed that up by delivering a crosscourt pass to Logan Burch for a spot-up three. Mateo Carbonel went all the way to the basket, finishing with his left hand, and added a 15-feet jumper as three Cardinals scored before Shiloh found the basket.

Connor Menifee’s jumper started a 12-2 Saints’ run that cut Farmington’s lead to 13-12 on Bodie Neal’s 3-pointer with 2: 06 left in the first quarter.

The Cardinals countered by engineering an 11-2 run of their own. Layne Taylor knocked down back-to-back trifectas and Burch drained another triple courtesy of a Carbonel assist after an offensive rebound. Layne Taylor hit in the key, extending Farmington’s lead to 24-14 and from that point on Shiloh was forced to play catch-up.

The Saints trailed 24-16 at the end of the first quarter and although they cut it to six on J.C. Philip’s jump-hook early in the second Farmington turned on its afterburners and raced out to a 49-27 halftime lead through a tremendous display of teamwork.

Nathan Monroe found Layne Taylor open for a trey. Sam Wells sank a jumper then fed Monroe to polish off a 2-on-1 fast break. He pushed the ball into the front court off another steal and dished to Carbonel. Later during the 25-11 second quarter run Carson Dearing set up Caleb Blakely’s deuce and a Monroe steal created a layup for Maddox Mahan.

The uptempo pace favored Farmington. Philip misfired on the front end of a 1 and 1. At the other end Layne Taylor caught and shot the ball near the free- throw line. His jumper rang true. Monroe attacked the basket with a steal and made a free throw. Wells’ offensive rebound led to Mahan’s 3-pointer and Layne Taylor sank a pair of foul shots in the closing seconds of the second quarter to put the Cardinals ahead by 22 points at halftime.

Layne Taylor and Carbonel combined to put 20 of Farmington’s 24 points on the board in the third quarter which ended with the Cardinals leading 73-48 on Carbonel’s layup when Monroe made a steal.

Johnny Taylor got good mileage out of his reserves. When he went to his bench leading 77- 48 with about six-and-a-half minutes left Shiloh Christian coach Chuck Davis stayed with his starters all the way through the fourth quarter. Even with that matchup Shiloh only produced six more points than the Cardinal reserves down the stretch, and it almost came back to haunt Shiloh because the Saints’ top shot-blocker, Kahil Mobley, was assessed a technical foul when he threw Farmington’s Noah Farmer to the floor after getting boxed out on a rebound. Had Mobley been ejected for a flagrant foul he would have had to sit out the Saints’ next game.

Mobley blocked a number of shots in the game, but the Cardinals prevented him from hurting them on the offensive glass, which is where he likes to operate and that frustration shone through.

Mahan and Dearing hit 3-pointers in the fourth and Mahan went 3 of 4 at the foul line as Farmington recorded a 23-point victory to remain unbeaten in 4A- 1 boys basketball action this season.