MEDORA

The Medora boys took charge from the opening tip in rolling to a 62-36 win against Washington Catholic in a non-conference game Saturday night in the Hornets’ Nest.

Medora coach Michael Leitzman said he was pleased with the start as the Hornets opened a 17-0 lead after 4:40.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

“These past few weeks we just had some bad starts, and we start playing good later in the game but it’s too late because we’ve lost so much ground earlier in the game,” he said.

“I really preached to them all week about getting off to a good start and setting the tempo right away, and we came out with a lot of energy, a lot of effort on defense.

“We got a lot of deflections, and eventually those deflections led to steals. I thought our defense was so good it got our offense started. We were able to get out in transition and get our confidence up early.”

Baskets by Kam Flynn and Jalen Beesley gave the Hornets a 4-0 lead in the opening minute, Brandon Moore’s 3-pointer boosted Medora’s lead to 13-0 at the 4:35 mark, and his layup put the Hornets on top 17-0 before AJ Sellers finally scored for the Cardinals with three minutes left in the period.

Washington reduced its deficit to 19-8 in the second period before the Hornets hit from long range as Tony Norklun hit a 3-pointer between a pair of 3s by Chase Booker for a 28-10 score with 2:15 on the clock, and Medora took a 31-10 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Hornets shot 12-for-29 from the floor against the Cardinals’ 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones.

“I’m glad they played that because we’ve struggled at times against zone defenses,” Leitzman said. “I thought our group did a great moving the basketball with dribble penetration and getting to open areas and making good passes the whole night. I thought it was a great game for us.”

Booker scored six points each in the first and second periods, while Moore had seven points in the first, and Norklun scored five in the second.

Booker stayed hot at the start of the third period with two more 3-point baskets, and Norklun added another ‘3’ at the end of the period to give his team a 46-20 lead going into fourth. Booker’s fifth 3-pointer gave Medora its biggest lead of the night — 28 points — at 51-23.

Booker topped the Hornets with 21 points and Moore added 16.

Beesley had seven boards as the Hornets out-rebounded the Cardinals 25-20.

“We had been bullied on the boards all year,” Leitzman said. “I’ve been fed up with it since the start, and I think the kids are fed up with it too, and I think we were a lot more aggressive getting rebounds tonight off the offensive and defensive glass.”

Sellers topped the Cardinals (3-18) with 27 points.

The game began a four-games-in-eight-days stretch for the Hornets, and all four are at home.

“We did a great job of getting off to a good start and getting our confidence up,” Leitzman said.

Medora (6-15) will host Crothersville on Tuesday.