SPORTS

Newark boys basketball pulls away from Mount Vernon

Kurt Snyder
Reporter
  • Dustin Stoneburner scored 10 of his 14 in the third quarter.

NEWARK – The Wildcats did not admit to any fire-and-brimstone speeches Friday night. They simply needed to kick it into gear.

A dominant third quarter finally allowed Newark (18-5) to shake visiting Mount Vernon (5-17) and sent the Wildcats on their way in a pursuit of a Division I district title. The Wildcats pulled away for a 57-42 victory in a first-round game at Jimmy Allen Gymnasium.

"We weren't ready to play in the first half," senior Dustin Stoneburner said. "We talked about (it) in the locker room; they were only shooting 42 percent, but they were staying right with us. We had to get them to turn the ball over some more."

Fifth-seeded Newark plays host to No. 39 Westerville Central at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Stoneburner's 10 third-quarter points took care of the offense, and a better collective effort did the job at the defensive end. The Yellow Jackets managed just three field-goal attempts in the third as seven turnovers allowed the Wildcats to get off and running.

Stoneburner opened the quarter with a basket off of a great high-low pass from Darius Shackleford. He then scored in transition off of a pass from Khayle Woods, sneaked down the baseline for a reverse layup, and drove across from the lane for a layup, scoring Newark's first eight points of the quarter.

"It is just whoever is attacking," Stoneburner said. "We can all do a pretty good job of getting to the hoop."

Early in the third quarter, Darius Shackleford took a charge, and Woods drew a foul when the Mount Vernon point guard attempted to clear space. The Yellow Jackets shot a respectable 41 percent from the floor, but the 18 turnovers were too much to overcome.

"We tried to pressure the ball, but their guards handled the pressure (in the first half). They made our defense look bad," Newark coach Jeff Quackenbush said. "I thought we were more sound away from the ball in the third and fourth quarters."

Mount Vernon packed in its zone during the first half, and Newark was unable to hit from the outside. The Wildcats were only 3-of-17 from 3-point range for the game.

Kaysey Brokaw-Henderson picked up the slack. He scored three times in transition, tipped in a point-blank miss, and hit Newark's second 3 of the night to keep the Wildcats ahead 26-24 at halftime.

"We knew going into the second half we had to play a lot better," Brokaw-Henderson said. "That really got us going that we were only up by two. Once we score, we really score in spurts. That gets our defense going, and we just play a lot better off of that."

Stoneburner's 14 points led three Wildcats in double figures. Brokaw-Henderson scored all of his 13 in the first half, and Jordan Dartis added 12, five rebounds and four assists.

The Wildcats, who have struggled with their outside shot twice in the past three games, hope to regain a measure of consistency Wednesday before the competition ramps up in their quest to reach the district finals for a fourth consecutive season.

"The teams that want to win and look good doing it are going to end up getting beat," Quackenbush said. "We don't need to look good while we win. We just need to win basketball games, and our kids figured out a way to do that."

ksnyder@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @newarkurt