Ever the gracious hosts on a cold, wintry January evening, the Kokomo Wildkats threw a blanket over the visiting McCutcheon boys basketball team at Memorial Gym Saturday, but not the kind of blanket the Mavericks would have appreciated.
With a smothering defense that held McCutcheon to single-digit scoring in all four quarters, Kokomo responded to Friday’s loss at Peru with a 55-24 beatdown of the short-handed Mavs.
The 24 points scored by McCutcheon was the first time since 2000 the Kats (5-5) had held an opponent to fewer than 30 points. The Mavericks (5-5) played without two seniors — the injured Nick Wittgren, who went down on Friday, and the suspended Ethan Peabody.
“Regardless of Wittgren and Peabody being out it still was a solid defensive effort,” Kokomo coach Brian McCauley said. “If you can hold a team to single digits for four quarters, you’re playing defense.
“We had better energy, we got out into the passing lanes and were denying better, and we were rebounding much better than [Friday’s] game [a 58-37 loss at Class 3A No. 7 Peru].”
Unable to generate but one turnover, Kokomo trailed the Mavs’ patient offense throughout the first quarter before Cheyse Swain’s bucket at the buzzer tied the score at 8-all. Then that energy began to slowly kick in.
With six points off of three takeaways the Kats began to build momentum, outscoring McCutcheon 14-4 in the second period to lead 22-12 at the half. Alan Arnett, who had a game-high 16 points, scored six in that quarter while dishing out three assists.
The second half is when Kokomo really got rolling, turning over the Mavericks 10 times and fueling a stretch of 10 unanswered points that started with an Arnett 3-point play, featured a 3-point field goal by Arnett and ended with Arnett batting the ball away and finishing with a drop-step, two-handed slam dunk.
That gave the Kats a 41-19 lead and all but ended the game for the Kokomo starters at the 5:27 mark of the fourth quarter.
“The first half, we had the game in control but just didn’t make shots,” said McCutcheon coach Rick Peckinpaugh. “The second half [Kokomo] got some steals, picked up the pressure and made some baskets in transition. That’s [the Wildkats’] game. The second half became their game, and they’re a lot better at it than we are.
“Kokomo is very athletic. They’ve got a great deal of talent, and if you let them get into an up-tempo game, they’re going to beat just about anybody around here — maybe in the state.”
Kokomo’s defense forced two equally ineffective halves for the Mavericks, shooting identical 4 of 18s from the field and 2 of 9s from 3-point range in each half — oddly enough all good for 22.2 percent.
McCauley would be happy if his Kats could show that kind of consistency in every phase of the game, game in and game out.
“It’s been a yo-yo season for us, most definitely,” he said. “We’ve had some tough losses; we’ve had some ups and downs, but we want to be a team that improves. That’s our tradition, that’s our philosophy.
“That’s the challenge and that’s the goal, to improve and become a more consistent team in what we’re trying to accomplish offensively and defensively.”
All was good after Saturday’s performance that yielded 13 assists to nine turnovers, a 37-16 rebounding advantage and 21 of the 55 points off the bench, including seven from freshman D.J. Balentine and six from Brock Barbary.
Colton Summers had nine points while Arnett grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Parker Salinas has three assists and Tyrone Brown added three steals. McCauley credited the team with all-around better ball movement.
“We had several guys just make the extra pass,” said McCauley. “I remember one that jumps out at me was when Brock Barbary penetrated the lane, came to a great jump stop and kicked it out to T.J. Weir for the knock-down 3 from the corner.
“That’s just good team basketball, and any time you can play good team basketball, both offensively and defensively, good things are going to happen.”
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HOOPS: Kats bounce back
Kokomo rebounds from loss at Peru to crush McCutcheon
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