WELCH – Quickness at both ends of Ergie Smith Court at the Castle was on display Friday evening as the host Mount View Golden Knights showcased a game-long tenacious man-to-man defense and nice ball movement and scoring drives at the other end of the court for a 71-58 victory over the River View Raiders.
Remarked Golden Knight head coach Gary Brown after the win, “They (Raiders) had scored something like 275 points in three games, so we’ve been talking all week and we said, ‘We’ve got to do what we do well and that’s defend…The things that we can do, I thought we did well.’”
After a slow start, the Knights took a 7-6 lead with 2:22 left in the opening chapter on a Tony Bailey bucket and never looked back.
Bailey led all scorers with 24 points , including 10 in the second quarter when the Knights outscored their guests 24-18 to stretch their advantage to 39-29 at intermission.
Brendon Rotenberry contributed 16 points and Malaki Bishop added 11 for the now 5-8 Golden Knights. All three are sophomores.
Seniors Kobe Halstead and David Adkins led the 9-3 Raiders with 15 and 10 points respectively.
The Raiders had trouble holding onto the ball, especially in the opening frame when they turned the basketball over seven times.
Mount View, meanwhile, had difficulty finding the bucket early, missing their initial six shot tries before warming to 50 percent (30-for-60) for the game from the field.
Halstead’s deuce from close range gave River View a 2-0 lead before Rotenberry made one-of-two free throws and Bailey’s driving goal pushed the Knights into a 3-2 advantage.
Adkins answered with a stick back of his own missed shot and Freddie Dawson scored on a drive for a 6-3 Raider lead with 4:47 remaining.
Rotenberry started a six point run with a driving deuce, followed by Bailey’s fielder that provided the third lead change and pushed Mount View on top for keeps.
Senior Skyler Justice added a rebound goal for a 9-6 Knight lead.
Mount View added a dagger at the end of the first period when Bailey hit a 30 foot jumper to push the advantage to 15-11.
Bailey ended the opening chapter with 7 points and Rotenberry added 6 for Mount View.
Dawson and Halstead scored four first quarter points each for the Raiders.
Bailey took charge in the second with 10. most on drives down the lane showing his quickness against the Raider man-to-man.
Freshman Jaylen Hall hit a buzzer-beating trifecta from the left corner to conclude the half for the Golden Knights.
Bishop scored 9 of his 11 points in the third, as the lead increased to 51-40.
Four times in the final eight minutes, Mount View led by 17 before taking its largest advantage of the evening with 1:54 left in the game after a Bailey steal and score to lead 71-53.
Assessed River View head coach Roger Hale, “We didn’t get back good in transition. They rushed us and took us out of what we’ve been doing. Give all the credit to them (Knights)…We’ve been playing good for the last three weeks. We’ve played good, played good team ball and took care of the ball. Not tonight!”
“We just couldn’t overcome that second punch in the second quarter,” Hale continued.
The Raiders, now 9-3, will travel to Richlands this evening.
River View actually shot better than the Knights from the field, canning 23-of-42 attempts, but turned the ball over 20 times to only 12 giveaways by the hosts.
Bailey also paced the Knights to a 32-31 rebounding advantage with 7 boards. Adkins corralled 8 missed shots for River View.
Mount View will play Man at Man Tuesday.
ON ERGIE SMITH COURT AT THE CASTLE
RIVER VIEW 11 18 11 18 58
MOUNT VIEW 15 24 12 20 71
SCORING
RIVER VIEW: Boo Roberts 4, Kobe Halstead 15, Freddie Dawson 8, Chase Porter 9, Daniel Dobbs 9, David Adkins 10, Caleb Kennedy 3. Totals 23 10-18 58.
MOUNT VIEW: Tony Bailey 24, Justin Haggerty 2, Jaylen Hall 3, Brendon Rotenberry 16, Malaki Bishop 11, Skyler Justice 9, Thomas Bell 6. Totals 30 6-13 71.
THREE POINT GOALS: RV 2 (Halstead 1, Kennedy 1). MV 5 (Rotenberry 2, Bailey 1, Hall 1, Justice 1).
FIELD GOAL SHOOTING: RV 23-42 54.8%, MV 30-60 50.0%
THREE POINT SHOOTING: RV 2-11 18.2%, MV 5-19 26.3%
REBOUND: RV 31 (Adkins 8, Halstead 6, Dobbs 6), MV 32 (Bailey 7, Justice 5, Bell 5)
TURNOVERS: RV 20, MV 12