Waltonville stays undefeated
Spartans use big fourth quarter run to put away NCOE, 79-57

12/09/2023
BY JACK BULLOCK
WALTONVILLE - On Saturday night it took the Waltonville Spartans' defense a while to get caught up with its offense.

The hosts let Norris City-Omaha-Enfield hang around for the first three quarters of the game as Coach Anthony Lowery's club only led 49-45 with just under a minute left in the the third quarter.

But as if on cue the Spartans stepped up their game on the defensive end, which fueled a 20-0 Waltonville scoring spree.

Forcing 10 second half turnovers Waltonville stayed undefeated on the season with a convincing 79-57 victory.

After winning the Christopher Thanksgiving Tournament and topping 2A Fairfield and MTC club Sandoval, the NCOE win makes it a 6-0 start for the mostly young squad.

Sophomores Gage Peterson and Kyle Cooper combined for 53 of the teams' 79 points in the victory.

Peterson scored 29-points, including 8-of-9 from the foul line, while Cooper added 24-points.

“We have a point guard who can handle pressure and a big kid who can score,” said Coach Lowery about Cooper and Peterson. “They're both 'gym rats' in the fact that they work hard on every facet of the game. I couldn't be more proud of both of them for working hard.”

The Spartans never trailed in the game but Norris City-Omaha-Enfield hung around.

Coach Jordan Johnson and his club started out the season 0-7 before getting a win at Sesser-Valier on Friday night.

The Fighting Cardinals had three players hit for double-figures in scoring on Saturday.

Sophomore Jaxon Simmons led NCOE with 20-points.

Javan Garrett, another of the sophomore players for Coach Johnson, and senior Spencer Shipp each added 16-points.

Simmons and Shipp each scored two baskets in the opening quarter but defensively they couldn't contain Waltonville early.

“We've got three kids that can finish around the rim and we're a bigger team than we were last year,” said Coach Johnson. “But we're still trying to figure out how to get the best opportunities to score. We need to get our best shots.”

With Peterson hitting the first two of his made free throws on the night and senior Makabe Devor nailing down a 3-pointer from the left wing, the Spartans broke the game's final tie score with a 7-0 run to make it 11-4 midway through the first quarter.

Peterson scored 13 of his points in the first quarter, including a three-point play and a transition fast break lay in as Waltonville was in front 22-10 at the end of the first quarter.

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NCOE fell behind due in part to four turnovers and 4-of-12 shooting.

The second quarter featured 37 combined points and four 3-pointers.

Senior Seth Karnes, who scored 10-points for Waltonville, and Cooper each drained 3's during the quarter while Garrett connect on a pair of long range shots.

He nailed a shot from just inside the half court line at the halftime buzzer to cut the Fighting Cardinals' deficit to just 39-30 at intermission.

“We're trying to put more pressure on the ball than we have the last couple of years. We have a some depth this year,” said Coach Lowery. “But sometimes we take the foot off of the gas when we get a big lead and we talked about that at halftime. We have a bunch of young guys and it is a learning process.”

An 8-2 run by NCOE got the Cardinals within three to begin the second half.

Simmons converted a three-point play while being fouled by Peterson and another 3-pointer from Shipp cut the Waltonville lead to 41-38.

However the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter was all Spartans.

Peterson and Cooper each scored points to close out the quarter at 53-45 Waltonville.

The first three minutes of the final quarter doomed NCOE with the Spartans taking command.

Peterson added six more points and Devor hit another 3-pointer before Cooper hit 1-of-2 foul shots to close the run with Waltonville up 69-45 with 3:56 left.

The Spartans cruised home from there for their sixth-consecutive win to open 2023-24.

Waltonville connected on 31-of-51 shots overall and 5-of-8 from the 3-point line while holding a slight 23-19 rebounding edge.

Coach Lowery's squad forced 17-turnovers by NCOE while committing just 10.

Coach Johnson saw his club connect on just 22-of-52 overall from the field, 6-of-16 from long range.

The Fighting Cardinals head back to the court this coming week with road games at Galatia and Hardin County as their Greater Egyptian Conference schedule begins.

Waltonville will travel to rival Woodlawn next Friday in a key MTC contest.

“For a 1A team we've had a pretty tough schedule so far and these sophomores kind of got thrown into the fire but they're getting better every night,” said Coach Johnson. “It felt good to get a win last night and I think we will be even better in January and February.”
Non-Conference
1
2
3
4
-
F
Norris City-Omaha-Enfield
10
20
15
12
-
57
Waltonville
22
17
14
26
-
79

Norris City-Omaha-Enfield (57) – Prather 0 0 0-0 0, Garrett 1 4 2-2 16, Simmons 8 0 4-5 20, Tharp 0 0 0-0 0, Shipp 5 2 0-0 16, Russell 1 0 0-0 2, Sexton 1 0 1-2 3.
2FG-16, 3FG-6, FT-7-9, PF-14.
Waltonville (59) – M. Devor 1 2 0-0 8, Lamke 2 0 0-0 4, Cooper 9 1 3-4 24, W. Devor 0 0 0-0 0, Klingler 0 0 0-0 0, Peterson 9 1 8-9 29, Kretz 1 0 0-0 2, Mayville 1 0 0-0 2, Stewart 0 0 0-0 0, Karnes 3 1 1-1 10.
2FG-26, 3FG-5, FT-12-14, PF-12.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.