By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com
MOUNDRIDGE – The Moundridge boys began play in the Class 2A sub-state with a dominating performance in routing Flint Hills at home, winning by 26, 70-44.
With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 18-3 for the season and will now tangle with cross-county rival Inman in Whitewater on Friday. Inman improved to 17-4 with a 55-25 win on Tuesday over Berean Academy.
“It took us a bit to get going but we started to heat up mid-first quarter,” noted Wildcat head coach Vance Unrau. “Flint Hills is athletic and has some offensive skills. We don’t see a lot of zone defense during the season so I can accept a little trouble executing against their 3-2, but we didn’t do some of the things against it that we had repped in practice.”
Moundridge jumped out to a 10-point, 18-8 lead by the end of the first quarter before pushing the advantage to 16 at 35-19 by the halftime break. After extending the lead to a dominating 30 points, 61-31, by the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats cruised on in for the final 26-point victory.
Much help for the Wildcats came from being red hot from the field as they connected on 51% of all shots and 40% of those beyond the three-point line.
Landon Kaufman had another big game, leading the team in scoring with 26, assists with seven and steals with nine. Barrett Moddelmog contributed 19 and came close to a double-double with eight rebounds while also dishing out six assists. Both Kaufman and Moddelmog dropped in four three-pointers for the night.
Logan Churchill also came close to a double-double with 17 points and eight rebounds as well, plus he blocked three shots.
Leading the scoring for Flint Hills were Kendall Pinkerton with 16 and Nate Becker with 11.
Coach Unrau concluded his post-game reflections by saying, “Defense finally got us going and we were able to extend the lead. Now we look forward to finding a way to keep advancing through the tournament.”
SCORING: 1 2 3 4 FINAL
Flint Hills 8 11 12 13 44
WILDCATS 18 17 26 9 70
Flint Hills Team Stats: FG 16/44; 3-PTR 6/19; FT 6/9; AST 7; REBS 23; TO 3; STL 3; BLK 0; PF 8.
MOUNDRIDGE WILDCATS TEAM STATS: FG 27/52; 3-PTS 11/27; FT 6/7; AST 24; REBS 29; TO 7; STL 15; BLK 3; PF 9.
MOUNDRIDGE WILDCATS INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS: Scoring (70 total points): Landon Kaufman – 26; Barrett Moddelmog – 19; Logan Churchill – 17; Henry Hecox – 3; Joseph Lane – 3; Ethan Brandeweide – 2; Kepple Adolf – 2. 3-Pointers Made (11): Kaufman, Moddelmog – 4; Churchill, Hecox, Lane – 1. Assists: Kaufman – 7; Moddelmog – 6; Churchill, Hecox – 3; Lane, Joseph Schrag – 2. Rebounds: Moddelmog, Churchill – 8; Schrag – 5; Brandeweide – 3; Hecox – 2. Steals: Kaufman – 9; Moddelmog – 3; Churchill – 2. Blocked Shots: Churchill – 3.