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The Lamar Tigers had the misfortune of playing the not-so-fun role of mouthwash for the Diamond Wildcats on Monday night in boys’ basketball action.
After a tough loss to Southwest left a bad taste in the collective mouths of the Wildcats before the Christmas break, Diamond got a refreshing, 65-50 win over Lamar.
“Southwest was a bad game for us. Especially going into Christmas break since we didn’t have any games or a holiday tournament,” Diamond senior guard Jared Huffman said. “We did have kind of a sour taste in our mouth for a couple weeks. Coming in and getting a win over Lamar feels good. Now, we have to build on that and get some more wins starting with Seneca on Friday. I think we got better today.”
Huffman’s coach shared his sentiment.
“That Southwest game, first of all I will give them credit. They are well coached, they executed and did what they had to do,” Diamond coach Josh Cook said. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t do well with our defensive rotation, we didn’t do anything well at all offensively, we didn’t do anything that we needed to do and that was definitely a bitter taste because we haven’t played in a couple of weeks. But it gave us an idea what we need to do better. Tonight our defensive rotation was much better and our offense, in spurts, looked very good tonight. Turnovers hurt us a little bit.”
In the first quarter, Diamond got off to a fast start. After a barrage of quick baskets by Scotty Corn, Huffman, Kyle Heman and Logan Myers, the Wildcats were already up 12-2 just three minutes into the game.
The Wildcats cooled off from the floor in the latter half of the frame however. After one quarter, Diamond led by 11 points.
In the second quarter, Diamond held serve. The Wildcats had to sustain a couple of small runs by the Tigers, but after a 3-pointer by Chance Hardy just before time expired in the second quarter, the
Wildcats took a 29-16 lead into the locker room at halftime.
To start the second half, Lamar coach Kyle Williams dialed up the pressure on defense with a full court press. Diamond struggled with the pressure early in the third quarter and Lamar pulled to as close as nine points with under a minute to play in the third.
The Lamar Tigers had the misfortune of playing the not-so-fun role of mouthwash for the Diamond Wildcats on Monday night in boys’ basketball action.
After a tough loss to Southwest left a bad taste in the collective mouths of the Wildcats before the Christmas break, Diamond got a refreshing, 65-50 win over Lamar.
“Southwest was a bad game for us. Especially going into Christmas break since we didn’t have any games or a holiday tournament,” Diamond senior guard Jared Huffman said. “We did have kind of a sour taste in our mouth for a couple weeks. Coming in and getting a win over Lamar feels good. Now, we have to build on that and get some more wins starting with Seneca on Friday. I think we got better today.”
Huffman’s coach shared his sentiment.
“That Southwest game, first of all I will give them credit. They are well coached, they executed and did what they had to do,” Diamond coach Josh Cook said. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t do well with our defensive rotation, we didn’t do anything well at all offensively, we didn’t do anything that we needed to do and that was definitely a bitter taste because we haven’t played in a couple of weeks. But it gave us an idea what we need to do better. Tonight our defensive rotation was much better and our offense, in spurts, looked very good tonight. Turnovers hurt us a little bit.”
In the first quarter, Diamond got off to a fast start. After a barrage of quick baskets by Scotty Corn, Huffman, Kyle Heman and Logan Myers, the Wildcats were already up 12-2 just three minutes into the game.
The Wildcats cooled off from the floor in the latter half of the frame however. After one quarter, Diamond led by 11 points.
In the second quarter, Diamond held serve. The Wildcats had to sustain a couple of small runs by the Tigers, but after a 3-pointer by Chance Hardy just before time expired in the second quarter, the
Wildcats took a 29-16 lead into the locker room at halftime.
To start the second half, Lamar coach Kyle Williams dialed up the pressure on defense with a full court press. Diamond struggled with the pressure early in the third quarter and Lamar pulled to as close as nine points with under a minute to play in the third.
“We told them to just settle down,” Cook said. “A lot of teams won’t press us because we have such experienced and athletic guards that can get by guys one-on-one. So seeing it tonight kind of caught us off guard.”
The saving grace for Diamond was Myers, who scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter to keep Lamar at arm’s reach. The junior forward triggered a 6-2 run for Diamond to extend the lead back to 13 points. Myers also had a team-high eight rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass.
“That kid just keeps getting better and better,” Cook said. “He just loves the game and you can tell by his demeanor on the floor that he’s having fun. If we’d let him, he’d be in here when the sun comes up trying to get better. Sometimes he’s a little silly and goofy and we have to reel him in from that a little bit, but I’d much rather that than having a kid that I have to constantly kick in the butt.”
In the fourth quarter, Huffman and Ryan Jinks carried the load for the Wildcats on offense and the home team coasted to the 15-point victory.
For Diamond (7-2), this win provided a big boost of confidence going into Friday night’s Newton County showdown in Seneca while also showing how good the Wildcats have the potential to be.
“We don’t have a ceiling,” Huffman said. “We believe that we can get all the way to state and we can win this thing. I think that everyone on this team believes that and I honestly believe it.”
Other scorers for Diamond were: Heman 13, Jinks 11, Huffman 8, Corn 5, Hardy 5, Brenten Olsen 3 and Trent Hayes 1.
Diamond and Seneca tip off Friday at Seneca High School at 7 p.m.
