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Martins Ferry has little trouble with Toronto

Photo Provided Martins Ferry’s Jaizen Miles, left, and Logan Smith go after a loose ball during Tuesday night’s game at Toronto.

TORONTO — This time the mountain was too big for Toronto to climb.

The Martins Ferry boys basketball team got off of a fast start as the Purple Riders built a 27-point advantage in the third quarter. The Red Knights battled back, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Martins Ferry came away with a 61-46 victory Tuesday night inside the George J. Kunzler Memorial Gymnasium.

The Purple Riders produced the first basket of the third quarter to take a 38-11 lead. The Red Knights fought back, but they got no closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

“We had seven days off, meaning we had seven days to get ready for this game, and I did not do a good job of preparing us to play Martins Ferry,” Toronto (2-3) head coach Sean Tucker said. “We had a long break. The guys should have been ready to play but we weren’t ready to play and that is my fault. I have to do a better job of getting us prepared to play for a full 32 minutes. We were not ready, and we were not hungry to come out and play and that is my fault.

“We gave a lot better effort in the second half, but the hole was too big. When you have a team that is struggling to score, it is hard to climb out of a hole. You are not going to climb out of many 22-point holes and come back and win the game.”

The Purple Riders raced out to a 21-3 lead at the end of the first quarter, and Martins Ferry never looked back.

“We ran excellent offense,” Martins Ferry (3-2) head coach Derek Edwards said. “This week in practice, we did an outstanding job of paying attention to details, and that translated into the game. We executed at a high level. We shot a high percentage because we were taking high-percentage shots. We got off to a hot start because we were executing our offense.”

Toronto outscored Martins Ferry in the second half, but by then the damage had already been done.

“We really had Martins Ferry scouted well,” Tucker said. “We saw them play a few times. When we scouted them, they did not shoot well from the outside at all. We decided to pack it in. We did not rebound well. We wanted to limit them to just one opportunity, but Martins Ferry was able to get multiple opportunities to score.

“Offensively, teams are going to take away Brendan Matyas. They are going to take away our point guard. At practice, we have had it where Brendan does not have the ball and other players have to step up. We are in a situation where it is not transitioning from practice to the game. It is hard to get looks in practice when you have a lot of upperclassmen going against freshmen. It’s not like how it was last year.”

A 12-0 spurt by the Red Knights in the third quarter put the Purple Riders back on their heels for a little bit, but Martins Ferry was able to regroup and push the lead back up to 26 in the fourth.

“We knew Sean was going to have them fired up in the second half,” Edwards said. “We knew they were going to come out and play hard. I have a lot of respect for Coach Tucker. He is a great coach. His team is going to make a run. Good teams find a way to kill runs. We were able to regroup and regain our composure, and we were able to kill their run. Basketball is a game of runs. Good teams kill runs. We were able to settle down, and we were able to get some turnovers which led to some layups. Once we were able to settle down and we were not having turnovers, we were able to push the lead back out again.”

A.J. Clegg collected a team-high 15 points for Toronto. Shane Keenan contributed 14 points and Matyas 12.

Dasyn Hores, who played a strong game from start to finish, finished with a game-high 24 points, while Logan Smith tallied 13 for Martins Ferry. Ruben Hilson recorded nine points.

After falling behind 38-11 early in the third, the Red Knights stormed back and pulled to within 38-23. Martins Ferry, though, was able to regain the momentum, as it took a 44-25 lead into the fourth.

The visitor’s advantage grew to 59-33 lead in the final frame before another run by the hosts pulled them to within 15 at the final buzzer.

“This is one of those games where you scratch off the schedule, and you forget that you played it,” Tucker said.

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