River Ridge boys cruise past Cassville
By A.J. Gates
River Ridge and Cassville met up last Thursday night to put the finishing touches on their regular-season schedules, where the Timberwolves came away with an 80-32 victory over the host Comets.
The win gave coach Jim Mergen’s Timberwolves a Six Rivers West conference record of 10-2 to put them second in the final league standings behind Potosi (11-1). The Comets concluded conference action with a record of 3-9, putting them in a tie for the fifth spot with Belmont, and ahead of Benton (0-12).
The Timberwolves came out firing from outside last Thursday night, knocking down eight 3-pointers to take a 48-18 lead at intermission.
The hole proved too deep for coach Don Adams’ squad to climb out of, and was outscored 29-14 in the second half.
“The guys did a real good job moving the ball and finding the open man,” explained coach Wagner of his Timberwolves. “Our defense was solid all night.”
As a team, River Ridge made 26-of-61 (42.6 percent) total shot attempts, including 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) from 3-point range. They were 16-of-30 (53.3 percent) from the free throw line, committed just five turnovers and out-rebounded the Comets 40-23.
Brady Bunge led the way for River Ridge, netting a team-high 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor, including 6-of-12 attempts from downtown. He also chipped in six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Ty Adrian added 12 points in the victory, followed by Brandon Davis and Matthew Nies who each finished with 11, along with Luke Patterson’s nine.
Davis also dished out a team-high six assists to go along with a team-high five steals.
The Timberwolves kicked off tournament play this past Tuesday night against No. 14 seed La Farge Youth Initiative, while Cassville traveled to No. 6 seed De Soto.
The Timberwolves enter tournament play with an overall record of 19-4, having picked up wins over Potosi, Highland, Wauzeka-Steuben, Seneca and De Soto, who are all in the same sectional.
