David Laughlin
Waurika News-Democrat
DUNCAN —
After taking home the fourth place trophy at the Rush Springs Black Diamond Tournament, the Eagles got back on track with a 52-16 shellacking of Geronimo.
“We came out looking to get better from our previous game against Elmore City,” Waurika skipper Joe Masoner said.
Prior to taking Geronimo to the woodshed Tuesday evening, the Eagles fell to the Elmore City Badgers in the consolation championship of the Rush Springs tournament.
“At Monday’s practice, I pressed this team to work better and harder,” Masoner said. “After the first quarter, Geronimo was hanging on 9-5. We got some good looks but couldn’t knock anything down.”
The Eagles erupted in the second stanza, taking a 28-8 lead to the locker room.
“When we came in for half-time, I told my guys that our third quarter play has been less than stellar all year,” Masoner said. “We took a 20-point lead into half-time. I told them I wanted to have a 40-point lead going into the fourth quarter.”
The Eagles nearly delivered, extending their lead to 43-8 after three periods of play.
“We did a good job on defense in the third quarter,” Masoner said. “It was probably our best defensive performance all year. Guys on the other team got to where they would cross halfcourt and just launch a shot because of how aggressive we were playing.
“We did a great job of not letting up.”
Mason and the Eagles implemented a new rotation to maintain Masoner’s desired level of intensity throughout the game. It worked, he said.
“We didn’t let up the entire game,” he said. “We did something new with the rotation. We are going to have all five guys on the floor flying around. We are going to rotate them with a whole new, fresh set of guys to make sure neither group is too fatigued. That way we can play with the intensity we have to. It was just one guy after another attacking them.”
Aside from the impressive defensive performance, Masoner said his squad needs to improve its shooting.
“We have to be able to hit more shots,” he said. “Our shooting percentage just wasn’t that good. We had a lot of good looks on the inside. We just couldn’t knock down the shots.”
Taylor Fuller led the Eagles with 11 points. His brother, Tyler, followed suit, draining the ball for 9 points. Mason Wilkerson chipped in eight and Austin Masoner contributed six.
“All 10 of our guys in the two rotations scored,” Masoner said. “We did a great job, we just need to get better in our shooting.”
