For the Tribune

MEDORA

Coach Michael Leitzman wanted his Medora basketball team to set the tempo from the start of Friday night’s game against Tabernacle.

That is exactly what the Hornets did by scoring the first six points of the game, then increased their lead to 13-7 at the end of the first period as they rolled to a 60-24 win.

“Every week I’m confident in my guards that we can control the pace of the game no matter who we’re playing,” Leitzman said. “We came out from the start, we did our press and stuck to our zone and I thought we did a good job of pressuring

the basketball.

Jalen Beesley had a hot-hand early for the Hornets as his third basket of the game, at the 3:12-mark, put Medora on top 8-3.

After Medora’s Chase Booker opened the second quarter scoring with a 3-pointer, Jordan Cook scored the Eagles’ only basket of the period, and then the Hornets began to pull away as Austin Fish hit another 3, Cam Flynn scored back-to-back layups, Fish followed with another layup, and Mike Jones scored off an offensive rebound for a 28-9 score at the half.

The Hornets went outside the arc in the third period when Kirk Stewart and

Flynn both made 3-pointers, and Kage Spence made back-to-back 3s to make it a 46-15 game going into the fourth period.

“Defensively we had a real good middle section, but I told the guys we’ve got to be able to put four quarters together in the future,” Leitzman said.

Ten different Hornets scored, topped by Flynn with 11, Booker with 10 and Spence with nine. Nathan Gerber was high for Tabernacle with eight points.

“Gerber was definitely their best player and we wanted to take him out of the game, and I thought we did a great job defensively communicating, knowing where he was at all times,” Leitzman said.”

Leitzman said the game plan was to substitute

in groups.

“Today, for the first time we played eight guys off the bench early in the game, so I thought that was a good boost for us,” he said.

The Hornets take a

record of 2-2 to Lanesville tonight.

The girls’ teams will play at 4:30, followed by the boys JV and varsity games.