Murray clamps down on Moulton-Udell

MURRAY — A seven-point halftime lead was not good enough for the Murray Lady Mustangs.

So Bre Klein and Hailey Chew jump-started the Murray offense to start the second half, and the defense buckled down as Murray galloped to a 54-24 victory over Moulton-Udell in non-conference action.

The victory pushed the Lady Mustangs to 17-2 this season.

Chew, even after scoring eight points in the third quarter in quick fashion, drew the praise of her coach for her defense in the second half.

Coach Jerry Shields was quite pleased to see his team slow the Eagles’ penetration with the use of its 1-1-3 zone in the third.

“Hailey was a big key of that up top along with Zadie (Hatfield),” Shields said. “When we went to that, we were able to get a few more steals and get a few transition buckets.”

The Lady Mustangs had led just 25-18 at the halftime break, but throttled Moulton-Udell by a 19-0 margin in the third quarter.

It was the second consecutive victory for Murray over the visiting Eagles, who they defeated 50-31 on Tuesday.

Klein scored 30 points in the Tuesday victory over Moulton-Udell and recently had a stretch of scoring at least 20 points over the course of six games. She notched 10 points Thursday.

“She’s been doing a super job for us on the inside. She was starting to get sick on that night (Tuesday), but she played probably one of the best games she’s ever had,” Shields said. “She had 22 points in the first half and eight in the second half. She’s really started to work on her inside game and be able to make some moves on girls bigger than her.”

Ally Waske, who was no slouch as the game’s leading scorer with 21 points and 14 rebounds, continues to help set the tone for Murray’s offense that operates so much of the time in the paint.

“We’ve been getting a lot out of our post people lately,” Shields said. “Between Ally, Bre and Kendra (Boles) they’ve been doing a super job for us scoring-wise.”

Hatfield continues to hound opposing guards. She harasses opposing ball-handlers, making it hard for other teams to get into an offensive rhythm. She has also tipped away the ball many times.

She stands at 5-9 with long arms and has proven to have incredible anticipatory instincts that have served her well on defense all year.

Hatfield owns 109 steals this season as of Thursday night, which makes her tops in Class 1A per quikstats.com.

UP NEXT — Murray plays host to Orient-Macksburg (4-12) tonight (Friday).

Running score by quarter

M-U 8 18 18 25

Murr 12 25 41 54

M-U (FG FTS PTS) — 8 8-10 24. Malorie Probasco 1 4-4 6, Chelsey Boettcher 2 2-2 6, Brason Bukechek 2 0-0 4, Kendra Leer 1 2-4 4, Karsyn Sebolt 1 0-0 2, Sky Selvy 1 0-0 2. 3-pt. goals — none.

Murr (FG FTS PTS) —  23 8-13 54. Ally Waske 10 1-3 21, Bre Klein 3 4-6 10, Hailey Chew 4 1-2 9, Kendra Boles 3 0-0 6, Bailey Frederick 1 0-0 2, Britta Callstrom 0 2-2 2, Zadie Hatfield 1 0-0 2, Rylee Newton 1 0-0 2. 3-pt. goals — None. Assists — 15 (Hatfield 5, Callstrom 3, Chew 3, Boles 2, Waske 1, Katy Gibbs 1) Rebounds — 48 (Waske 14, Boles 7, Klein 6, Callstrom 6, Hatfield 6, Chew 4) Steals — 9 (Hatfield 5, Klein 2, Gibbs 1, Callstrom 1). Fouls — 11. Fouled out — none.

Mustang boys run and gun past M-U

What a difference two days make.

The Murray boys hoops squadron grabbed a win by just seven points in Bluegrass Conference action Tuesday at Moulton-Udell, but defeated the same Eagles squad 71-32 Thursday in Murray in a non-conference contest.

After Moulton-Udell notched the first bucket of the game, Murray filled up the bucket repeatedly, scoring 20 of the game’s next 21 points on their way to the 39-point beatdown.

“Tuesday night we walked the ball up the floor and let them come down and set up in their zone,” Murray coach Darin Wookey said. “You could see we weren’t going to  get a lot inside. Outside, we got all the looks we wanted.”

Reece Held and Jimmy Graham led the offense early with five points apiece in the first quarter.

Held grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out five assists while running the floor effectively.

It was Devin Slaughter who pushed the pedal to the metal in the second quarter, scoring 13 of Murray’s 22 second-quarter points with three shots from beyond the 3-point arc and two layups toward the end of the half.

Slaughter knocked down a triple from each corner early in the second quarter to stretch Murray’s lead from 14 to 20. He finished the night with 19 points.

He wasn’t the only Mustang to get going from deep.

Payton Flaherty continued his hot-shooting ways with his seamlessly smooth 3-point shot.

“You bring Payton and he’s kind of our offensive machine off the bench,” Wookey said.

He knocked down three from deep and now has hit 46 3-pointers this season.

The Mustangs showed strong defensive energy, as Wookey noted that Josh Webb is one of the guys he looks for to bring hustle off the bench.

“He brings a different dimension to the game,” Wookey said. “He scores, but he knows he’s more in there for defense than for scoring.”

Murray improved to 14-5 and will host Orient-Macksburg today (Friday). The Bulldogs are in search of their first win.

Running score by quarter

M-U 3 13 22 32

Murr 15 37 53 71

M-U (FG FTS PTS) —Wyatt Stansberry 3 4-6 10, Trent Rockwood 6, Zach Martin 1 3-5 5, Hunter Spring 2 0-0 4, Dakota Veldhuizen 1 0-1 2, John Houser 1 0-0 2, Clayton Morlan 0 1-2 1 . 3-pt. goals — None. Fouls — 11. Fouled out — none.

Murr (FG FTS PTS) —  29 3-8 71. Devin Slaughter 8 0-0 19, Keegan Johnson 5 0-2 13, Jimmy Graham 5 0-0 11, Payton Flaherty 3 0-0 9, Reece Held 3 0-0 7, Levi Snyder 1 2-2 4, Aden Cosner 1 0-0 3, Rilee Werner 1 0-0 2, Josh Webb 1 0-0 2, Jace Rodecker 0 1-4 1. 3-pt. goals — 10 (Flaherty 3, Slaughter 3, Held 1, Johnson 1, Cosner 1, Graham 1). Assists — 17 (Held 5, Slaughter 3, Jeran Cosner 3, Flaherty 2, Webb 2). Rebounds — 33 (Held 11, Jeran Cosner 4, Graham 4, Werner 4). Blocks — 5 (Werner 2, Snyder 1, Aden Cosner 1, Jeran Cosner 1). Fouls — 12. Fouled out — none.