Raiders end season in Knoxville
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Mt. Ayr 62, MM 51
The Mount Ayr Raiders became District Champions once more after a battle against the Moravia Mohawks, in Leon, last Tuesday.
The victory in Leon wasn’t an easy one, as the Mohawks made the Raiders earn every point.
Early in the contest, the Raiders led, leading by 12 at halftime (24-12), but a tenacious Moravia team matched the Raiders scoring in the third to keep the gap at 12, while staying with the Raiders in the fourth, outscoring Mount Ayr 20-19.
Heading into halftime coach Bret Ruggles was glad to be ahead but wasn’t sure it was enough.
“We need to work on our scoring a little bit, I’d be happier if we had more than 24 at the half,” said coach Bret Ruggles. “We are a team that can get going a little bit, but we had lapses of mental tonight. I understand we were 24 to 12, but we easily could have had that 35-12. Credit to them. They are a good ball club.”
Both teams struggled with shots in the beginning, along with plenty of turnovers.
“We were kind of frustrated,” said Ruggles. “With all the missed chip shots, they are missing them too, so if we could just bury four or five of them we are taking a 12 point lead in the quarter, but you’re relieved in a way because we are missing and so are they.”
The message to his team was, despite the effort that Moravia was putting in, Mount Ayr’s effort was keeping them down 12.
“They were down 19 at one time and I would’ve loved to have put that away, but they are still down 12,” said Ruggles. “We still won by 11. Credit to our guys. They kept fighting and battling.”
The Raiders saw familiar names lead the offense in Jaixen Frost with 21 and Payton Weehler with 20.
Offensively, the Raiders shot 22-of-58 fieldgoals for a 37.9 percent efficiency. They were good on four-of-13 threes and hit 14-of-24 freethrows.
Steals and turnovers were almost even, with the Raiders stealing the ball 14 times from Moravia, while turning it over 16 times.
In the end, the Raiders defeated the Mohawks 62-51 to advance to the substate final.
The win also gave the Raiders some hardware in the form of district champion medals, but more importantly, an opportunity to fight for a State Tournament berth.
The road to State would go through Knoxville, Iowa, where the Raiders would face Montezuma.
Sats
1 2 3 4 F
MM 6 6 19 20 51
MA 11 13 19 19 62
Offense
Pts FG 3 FT
Trujillo 7 3-5 0-0 1-2
Frost 21 7-19 1-5 6-6
Maudlin 1 0-1 0-0 1-2
Weehler 20 7-16 3-7 3-4
C.Larson 4 2-8 0-0 0-4
Stark 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Reynolds 2 1-4 0-1 0-0
Pierson 2 1-2 0-0 0-0
R.Larson 5 1-3 0-0 3-6
Sackett 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Yoder 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Defense
R Ast S B
Trujillo 6 4 5 0
Frost 3 2 4 0
Maudlin 6 3 0 0
Weeh.ler 5 1 3 1
C.Larson 9 2 0 1
Stark 0 0 0 0
Reynolds 3 0 1 0
Pierson 1 0 0 0
R.Larson 4 0 1 0
Sackett 0 0 0 0
Yoder 0 0 0 0
Montezuma 64, Mt Ayr 29
The Raiders took the long road trip to Knoxville on Saturday to face the Montezuma Braves.
The contest didn’t pan out the way Mount Ayr, as a team or fanbase, wanted it to.
In the first eight minutes, both teams were missing key shots, but turnovers allowed the Braves to climb to an eight point lead.
The second quarter is when things started to get away from the Raiders.
Erik Trujillo was the only Raider on the scoreboard, with eight points, while Montezuma continued to add to their lead.
Braydon Pierson added a bucket to get the Raiders up to 10 on the night and heading into halftime down 32-10.
“They did a good job defensively, early, to take out Frost,” said coach Ruggles. “We just didn’t have many adjustments for that.”
Turnovers plagued the Raiders early.
“I think we gave up 10 extra possessions in the first quarter,” said coach Ruggles. “You just can’t do that to the number four team in the state of Iowa and expect to survive.”
The second half was much of the same.
The Raiders struggled on offense as the Brave defense continued to pressure them underneath, without drawing fouls.
“Their athleticism is amazing,” said Ruggles. “Burgess was above the rim almost on every rebound.”
Moravia’s Eddie Burgess led the team in points with 16 and rebounds with 13, while also recording four blocks.
With just over two and a half minutes left on the clock, both teams brought in the benches.
Moravia would move on to the State Tournament for the third year in a row, while Mount Ayr would take the trip home as they said goodbye to five seniors in Payton Weehler, Riley Maudlin, Rhett Larson, Briar Knapp and Erik Trujillo.
Despite the loss, the Raiders heads were high.
“If we are going to take anything away from tonight, besides saying goodbye to five seniors is that we’ve got some youth here and guys that we can mold,” said coach Ruggles. “Ryce Reynolds is a fantastic freshman, I really like Braydon Pierson, Cody Larson and Jaixen Frost are back. We just need to find our five, six and seven.”
Sats
1 2 3 4 F
MA 5 5 11 8 29
MB 13 19 22 10 64
Offense
Pts FG 3 FT
Trujillo 11 4-7 3-5 0-0
Frost 3 1-6 0-1 1-2
Maudlin 2 1-2 0-1 0-0
Weehler 4 2-11 0-7 0-0
C.Larson 0 0-3 0-0 0-0
Stark 2 1-1 0-0 0-0
Reynolds 2 1-2 0-0 0-0
Pierson 5 2-5 1-3 0-0
R.Larson 0 0-1 0-0 0-0
Knapp 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Sackett 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Yoder 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Defense
R Ast S B
Trujillo 0 1 1 0
Frost 3 3 0 0
Maudlin 3 0 0 0
Weehler 3 1 0 0
C.Larson 6 0 0 0
Stark 0 0 1 0
Reynolds 0 0 0 0
Pierson 5 0 0 0
R.Larson 0 0 1 0
Knapp 0 0 0 0
Sackett 0 0 0 0
Yoder 0 0 0 0
