LINDEN — Lebanon used a smothering defense and had their best offensive output of the season in a 65-27 victory over Sagamore Conference foe North Montgomery Friday. The Tigers used several runs on their way to scoring a season high in points.
Lebanon Coach Albert Hendrix said it was the type of game his team had been waiting for, especially on the offensive end. Entering the game Lebanon only had averaged 43.7 points per outing.
“I thought our defense did a nice job,” Hendrix said. “We needed this game to get over the hump in scoring. It was a good conference win for us.”
Second-year Charger coach Chad Arnold was disappointed. After missing two weeks due to Covid-19 quarantine, Arnold thought his team looked rusty and tired.
“Lebanon is physical and a lot bigger than us,” Arnold said. “We are very young and we just don’t understand. We just didn’t do enough tonight. We looked tired.”
Lebanon (6-6,3-0) started game scoring the first six points before could score. North Montgomery scored their first bucket of the game at the 2:58 mark in the quarter when junior Colton Zachary hit a 3-point basket. The Tigers went on another six point run ended the quarter ahead 15-6.
North Montgomery (1-6, 0-2) cut the lead to 15-11 early in the second quarter but the Tigers outscored the Chargers 19-9 the remainder of the period to take a 34-20 halftime lead.
The game never got closer.
The third quarter saw Lebanon ramp up their defense to build the lead to 40-20 with 5:40 still remaining in the third period. The Tigers outscored the Chargers 18-3 to take a 52-23 score into the final period.
The Tigers outscored the Chargers 31-7 in the second half as North Montgomery continued to struggle on offense. Lebanon forced 18 Charger turnovers compared to only commiting five miscues.
Lebanon connected on 27-of-53 shots (51%) while holding North Montgomery to 10-of-30 shots (30%).
Lebanon had three scorers in double digits. Junior Hunter Crew was the game’s leading scorer with 16 points. Junior Reese Jones contributed 14 and sophomore Korbyn Sloggett added 11.
North Montgomery’s leading scorer was Zachary with nine who hit three treys.
Lebanon dominated on the boards by out-rebounding the Chargers 22-16.
The win enabled the Tigers to stay undefeated in the Sagamore Conference with a 3-0 recond.
The Chargers will travel to West Lafayette on Tuesday and Lebanon will play host to Covington tonight.
