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ORIENT – Diagonal ran away with the game early Tuesday night, winning 68-28 over Orient-Macksburg.
The first quarter saw the Maroons jump ahead with an opening score from Kade Klommaus. O-M’s Blake Thompson answered with a score of his own to tie it up, but it was the final time the Bulldogs would hold the score at even for the entire game.
Diagonal ran off a 20-2 run to close out the first quarter in a commanding 22-4 lead. The lead proved to be enough as the Maroons never wavered through the final three frames, improving to 4-5 on the season.
With the loss, Orient-Macksburg falls to 0-12.
The depth for the Maroons has been a welcome sight, nearly doubling the bench players from the season before. In games like Tuesday’s win over O-M, it was a night where everybody eats.
“We got off to a good start and had a good opportunity to get some of the younger guys in,” said Diagonal head coach Matt Warren. “... I thought they played really good and helped us stay fresh and energized. There wasn’t a whole lot of drop off, shot the ball really well and everyone chipped in. It was a good team win.”
Diagonal was led by Klommhaus’ 17 points. Ten players had a hand in scoring, but only Klommhaus crossed double digits. Skyler Stamps and Caleb Hubbard each had nine points.
The early lead fed the scoring brigade deep into the game with a well-traveled Diagonal crowd cheering on the Maroons in a visiting gym.
“It was contagious,” said Warren on the energy. “We wanted to play unselfish and find the open guy, and that open guy was knocking them down. ... Everybody was into the game and it was nice to see everybody having fun out there.”
Back to the
drawing board
Out-manned and out-gunned from the jump, O-M faced a smothering press from Diagonal that made it harder than usual to bring the ball up the floor in the first quarter.
The success of the press was evident with O-M only scoring two baskets, both of which occurred on the limited opportunities that came off a down-court pass that broke past the press.
“We just had trouble getting our spacing right,” said O-M head coach Jordan Thompson. “We had too many guys trying to run the middle of the floor. ... They’re long (Diagonal) and have a lot of good athletes on the front of it, making it hard for us on the back end trying to pass. Credit to them, they’re a good team.”
O-M was led in scoring by Tyson Ross’ 10 points. Wiley Ray chipped in nine and Blake Thompson had five.
Jordan Thompson said the Bulldogs opened the contest in zone as a way to keep the energy high in the long run, but added there still were difficulties in keeping up with the revolving door of Diagonal players who had their legs under them.
“With the lack of depth that we have, we try to do that to that to keep guys fresh,” said Jordan Thompson. “We switched it up to man-to-man and it worked a little bit better against their scorers, but at the end of the day its hard to keep guys fresh on the offensive end when they have many guys with the ability to score.”
Jordan Thompson added that despite weaknesses of having a limited roster (O-M dressed six players), there have been benefits to younger players seeing extended floor time.
“These guys are getting all this varsity experience,” said Jordan Thompson. “... This is definitely a learning curve for a lot of these new guys. ... A lot of these guys, this is the most they’ve played since junior high, so it’s definitely a learning curve, but moving forward definitely a good thing.”
UP NEXT – O-M will play Friday night against Twin Cedars in Bussey. Tip comes at 7:30 p.m.
Diagonal will next hit the floor against Murray Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Murray.
Diagonal 68, O-M 28
DIA (78) — 22 17 22 7
O-M (28) — 4 9 6 9
DIAGONAL (FG FT PTS) — Totals —24 10-14 68. Kade Klommhaus 7 3-4 17, Skyler Stamps 3 0-0 9, Caleb Hubbard 4 2-2 9, Will Strange 2 3-3 8, Scottie Bohn 2 0-0 6, William O'Connor 2 0-0 6. 3-point goals – 12 (Stamps 3, O' Connor 2, Bohn 2). Team fouls — 14. Fouled out — None.
ORIENT-MACKSBURG (FG FT PTS) — Totals — 17 20-26 61. Tyson Ross 5 0-0 10, Wiley Ray 4 0-0 9, Blake Thompson 2 0-0 5, Derek Gross 0 2-2 2, Chase Walker 1 0-1 2. 3-point goals – 2 (Thompson 1, Ray 1). Team fouls — 14. Fouled out — None.