LINDEN — It was a most definite happy homecoming for North Montgomery boys basketball on Saturday as the Chargers hosted Attica. After a gut-wrenching loss on Friday to Western Boone in the game’s final seconds, the Chargers were determined to avenge that loss. From the opening tip North Montgomery was in control and used their size advantage to crash the offensive glass. When the final horn sounded the Chargers were victorious by a final score of 61-26 as they snapped their eight-game losing streak.
Kelby Harwood was the catalyst for most of the evening as the sophomore guard scored a game-high 23 points on a very efficient 9-12 from the floor. Charger coach Chad Arnold was glad that his team was finally able to get back into the win column.
“It felt good for everyone tonight,” he said. “I’m happy for our guys because they played hard and earned it. We’ve played hard in all three of our games this week and had chances to come out on top in the previous two so to get it done was good for us.”
The Chargers dominated most of the stats including on the boards. They out-rebounded the Red Ramblers 29-14 and 14 of those 29 rebounds were offensive. Harwood grabbed five o-boards and Drew Norman and Nate McCoy also helped crash the glass as well to give the Charger offense second and third chance opportunities.
“That was a point of emphasis for us because we’re a lot bigger than they are,” Arnold said. “That’s not often the case with us so we made sure to take advantage of that.”
Along with Harwood’s 23, McCoy added 10. All 10 Charger players who stepped on the court got in the scoring column as Jarrod Kirsch scored seven, Colton Zachary, Ross Dyson, and Noah Hopkins four, Gabe Shirar and Cameron Enlow three, Drew Norman two, and Marc Infantes-Macebo added one. The Chargers shot 22-47 (47%) from the field in the win, but just 5-25 (20%) from three. They did make 12-17 (71%) of their free-throws.
“We put up a lot more points than we normally score and that was a result of every one of those guys contributing.”
The Red Ramblers shot 10-23 (43%) from the field in the loss. A big reason why the Chargers who able to get 24 more shots is because of the 23 turnovers from Attica to go along with the 14 offensive rebounds. Attica was led in scoring by Gage Greeson’s eight points.
This past week despite going 1-2, North’s two losses were by a combined seven points. Arnold believes that his team is beginning to turn the corner as they prepare for the final month of the regular season.
“We’re playing a lot harder as of late and that’s what we need to continue to do,” he said. “There’s still some things we have to clean up on defense. We have to rely on that side of the ball because we don’t score that much. Sometimes it’s hard win you’re not winning to continue to grind and put in the work, but our guys are and I’m proud of them for that.”
The loss sees Attica still searching for its first win of the season as they drop to 0-15 on the year. North Montgomery improves to 5-12.
The Chargers will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to take on Benton Central.
