LARNED-The half-court, trapping defense of the Haven Wildcats frustrated the offense of the Larned Indians Tuesday evening, resulting in a solid 55-39 win for the visitors.
Haven (5-3, 2-1 CKL) will host Hillsboro in a CKL game Friday. Larned (2-7, 0-3 CKL) travels to Pratt for a CKL game Friday.
With a considerable size advantage, the Wildcats controlled the rebounding while forcing Larned into 19 turnovers, forcing Larned into many outside shots. Larned shot 31 percent.
Larned coach Jerrod Smith commented, “We are struggling against zone defenses. We are trying too hard to make difficult plays, instead of making the easy play. That gets you playing too fast, shooting too fast. We need to slow things down.”
After pulling to a 16-12 first quarter edge, the Wildcats again scored 16 second-quarter points while holding Larned to eight, grabbing a 32-20 halftime advantage.
Larned’s struggles against the Wildcats’ zone defense continued in the second half as they were outscored in both the third and fourth quarters. Meanwhile, Haven was on the attack and getting to the free throw line. The Wildcats shot a solid 17 of 22 from the charity stripe while Larned managed only 8 of 13.
It was “Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside” for Haven as Luke Wells, a 6-2 junior hit four 3-pointers on his way to 16 points while Aaron Yoder, a 6-5 senior pounded the inside for 14 points.
Larned’s Mason Schartz scored nine points while Chance Sanger and Alex Barger chipped in with eight apiece. Larned’s leading scorer, Jonathan Herter was held to six points by the Haven zone defense.