Published: February 09, 2008 09:54 pm            

Cass crushes Caston

Kings bolt to 11-0 lead, go on for 21-point win

WALTON — Lewis Cass’ full-court pressure proved too much for Caston and the Kings ran away for an easy victory, 50-29, here Saturday afternoon.

Cass came out in a full-court press to start the game and bolted to an 11-0 lead thanks to four quick Caston turnovers. The Comets hit a 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter to cut the Kings’ lead to eight, 13-5, but the Comets would no closer the rest of the game.

“Our pressure defense caused some early turnovers that allowed us to get off to a 11-0 start. We thought we could full-court and half-court press them into some mistakes,” Cass coach Basil Mawbey said after the Kings’ fourth straight win.

Cass went on a 7-3 run to start the second quarter to push its lead to 20-8 and the rout was on. The Kings held the Comets to just four shot attempts from the field in the quarter and 10 total for the half. Cass took a 24-11 advantage to the locker room.

Cass led 38-18 after three quarters.

Rory Mannering and Ethan Watkins lead Cass (12-5) with 12 points apiece and Jon Keisling chipped in 11.

“Rory Mannering did a good job coming up with five steals and 12 points, which really keyed our offense,” Mawbey said. “Ethan Watkins was unstoppable inside also did great with his intermediate jump shot. Jacob Faust really denied in the middle and our guards didn’t have many turnovers. It was an overall balanced effort.

“I was also pleased with our bench. We got to use two JV players, Colton Zeck and Jeff Plank, that haven’t gotten to play a lot and we want to be able to do that as the season draws to the end.”

Caston (3-13) was led by Bryant Brown with eight points and Aaron Bendict had seven.

“The game was pretty much over with the 11-0 start,” Caston coach Andy Firth said. “I thought we tightened our defense up in the second quarter and played them pretty even to the half. We really worked hard in practice attacking the 2-3 zone trying to find gaps and we just didn’t execute that [Saturday]. I thought we had a great game plan, but we played really passive offensively against the zone.

“Defensively we wanted to keep the game in the 30s but it was a combination of things that caused up problems. Cass is a very strong team and Basil does a great job of exploiting your weaknesses. If you give them a crack or an opening, they will take advantage of it, they are very talented.”

Cass hosts Western Friday.

        

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