Balanced Cavaliers run past Marion Franklin

CHILLICOTHE- On Saturday night, the Chillicothe Cavaliers were sharks swimming with dolphins.

Shooting a season-high 66 percent from the floor, the Cavaliers (8-6) sent Marion Franklin back home with an 88-60 shellacking at Hatton Memorial Gymnasium.

“Our guys are buying in really well,” Chillicothe coach Eric Huffer said. “They’re having a lot of fun and playing with confidence. These are a group of guys who love each other and it’s fun to watch them interact at practice or off the court. I would have loved to see us play the way we are now earlier in the season. But the adversity made us hungry and put in more work. We’re playing a lot faster and more up-tempo and our half-court defense was phenomenal tonight.”

The Cavs were balanced in their attack as five different players scored in the opening minutes before Branden Maughmer nailed a pull-up jumper to give the Cavs a 15-6 lead at the 2:31 mark.

Coffland drilled a 3 and Will Roderick finished at the rim to push their lead to 20-7 after the first quarter.

Chillicothe stuck with the balanced attack and continued to overmatch the Red Devils. After pushing their advantage to 26-12, Khaleel Danzy sparked another Cavalier surge with four points and a couple of assists as the lead grew to 35-17 before Maughmer hit two free throws for a 20 point lead with 2:00 left.

Chillicothe led 39-18 at the break and showed no signs of letting up.

“We’ve really focused since the Vinton County game on getting our bench deeper,” Huffer said. “Guys like Simon Roderick, Khaleel Danzy and Jason Benson have been playing really well. And even Jayvon Maughmer gets a couple minutes and he’s been doing great. Offensively, if we’re passing, cutting, filling out spots and continuing our movement, we’ll get easy shots at the rim. With a month until tournaments start, we’re making progress on both sides of the ball.”

Maughmer’s onslaught continued as he led the Cavaliers on an 11-2 run right out of the gate to extend their lead to 50-21 with 5:48 remaining.

Marion Franklin had no answers for the shooting efficiency of the Cavaliers inside or outside. In the third quarter alone, the Cavs shot 9-of-11, including 3-of-3 from downtown. They led 61-35 and breezed to an easy victory from that point on.

“I felt we kind of got sloppy in the third,” Huffer said. “But we’re working on some different things defensively. Whether it’s working on our zone or improving on our press, we did different things to use the game as an opportunity to get better. Overall, we’re playing a lot better and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Chillicothe shot 33-of-50 from the floor, 66 percent. 10-of-15 from three point range, 66 percent while shooting just 12-of-22 at the line, 54 percent.

Maughmer led the Cavaliers with 15 points and seven rebounds. Seth Barnes finished with 13 points, Jordan Johnson had 11 points with five rebounds while Coffland logged nine points.

Chillicothe will hit the road on Tuesday and travel to McClain.