Raiders defeat previously undefeated Cardinals
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Mount Ayr 58,
SWV 35
The Raiders have been running the Pride of Iowa gauntlet and with two losses in the conference, Mount Ayr’s hopes at a title look slim, however, not completely out of reach.
Tuesday, January 10 saw the Raiders on the road to Corning to face the Southwest Valley Timberwolves for the second meeting of the season.
In the first meeting, the Raiders defeated the Timberwolves 58-37 and this time the score came out to just about the same with Mount Ayr winning 58-35.
The Raiders jumped out ahead early and kept their foot on the gas.
Suffering two straight losses, coach Bret Ruggles looked to get the Raiders back in the win column.
Jaixen Frost led the Raiders throughout the night, at one time equaling the total points of the Timberwolves as a team, at 22.
“It’s just called playing ball,” said Frost. “I’m trying to have fun playing basketball with my buddies and get that W.”
Frost recorded six steals, three assists and seven rebounds, leading all categories for Mount Ayr.
Ryce Reynolds had a night himself, scoring 10 points and seven rebounds, as well.
Getting the win meant a lot for Frost and the team.
“After the two games we lost we kind of got a pit in our stomach,” said Frost. “We’ve got a program here that wants to keep a standard and winning this game is big to get back on track.”
Coach Bret Ruggles was pleased with the win and the intensity that the Raiders showed on the floor.
“We really challenged our guys, we had a really spirited, tough, practice last night and the challenge was we aren’t playing hard enough on defense,” said coach Ruggles. “Our defense drives our offense and that showed tonight. They were able to get stops, transitions and not quite scoring where I’d like to be in the 70s.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 F
MA 11 21 13 13 58
SWV 11 7 7 10 35
Offense
Pts FG 3 FT
Stark 2 1-3 0-1 0-0
Reynolds 10 3-6 0-0 4-5
Frost 22 6-12 2-5 8-9
Martin 5 2-2 0-0 1-2
Ehlen 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Ruggles 5 2-7 1-4 0-0
Victor 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Pierson 9 3-9 0-3 3-4
Trujillo 0 0-1 0-1 0-0
Dugan 2 1-1 0-0 0-0
Main 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Fooken 2 1-1 0-0 0-4
JaizeFrost 1 0-1 0-0 1-2
Defense
R Ast S B
Stark 3 1 0 0
Reynolds 7 0 1 1
Frost 7 3 6 0
Martin 6 3 0 0
Ehlen 0 0 0 0
Ruggles 2 1 1 2
Victor 0 1 0 0
Pierson 2 1 0 0
Trujillo 0 0 0 0
Dugan 2 0 0 0
Main 0 1 0 0
Fooken 0 0 1 0
JaizeFrost 4 1 0 0
Mount Ayr 73,
Central Decatur 51
To end the week for the Raiders on Thursday, the undefeated Central Decatur Cardinals visited Mount Ayr.
The Raiders looked to have a tall order, but showed they were up to the task, handing the Cardinals their first blemish of the season by a 73-51 score.
Mount Ayr led Central Decatur after the opening quarter, 16-11, before ending the first half 31-28.
The Raiders came out in the second half with a spirited performance, outscoring the Cardinals 20-10 in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw the Raider offense continue, outscoring Central Decatur 22-13.
Jaixen Frost, once again, led the team with 22 points, while teammate Braydon Pierson added 18.
Jackson Ruggles rounded out double point scorers with 10 points.
Coach Bret Ruggles stated the gameplan was to disrupt the Cardinals systematic offense, which proved to be effective.
“Our kids came out tonight and we changed everything last night,” said coach Ruggles.
“We brought back our press. We told them they are going to have to fight for 32 minutes and they did exactly that for 30 minutes and got to coast for the last two.”
The win brought a huge weight off the shoulders of two senior leaders in Frost and Pierson, who combined for 40 points on the night.
“We had nothing to lose, a 10 and 0 team that’s undefeated and we needed to get back to our identity which is run and gun and we did just that,” said Frost. “We made them panic a little bit and got the outcome that we wanted. It feels good and I know we aren’t really in the running right now but we are just trying to make heck for everyone else.”
Pierson echoed Frost’s comments and was all smiles after the victory.
“We’re the type of team that likes to get out fast and the coaches wanted to put in a new offense and the last couple of games we realized that wasn’t working,” said Pierson. “We went back to what we do best and this is our identity. This win feels great man.”
Stats
1 2 3 4 F
CD 11 17 10 13 51
MA 16 15 20 22 73
Offense
Pts FG 3 FT
Stark 8 3-5 2-3 0-0
Reynolds 6 2-4 1-3 1-2
Frost 22 8-13 1-4 5-6
Pierson 18 7-11 2-4 2-3
Martin 7 1-4 1-3 4-4
Ruggles 7 1-4 1-3 4-4
Dugan 2 0-0 0-0 2-2
Fooken 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
JaizeFrost 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Defense
R Ast S B
Stark 0 1 4 0
Reynolds 7 2 3 0
Frost 9 8 2 0
Pierson 4 0 0 0
Martin 3 1 1 2
Ruggles 7 4 1 1
Dugan 1 0 0 0
Fooken 0 0 0 0
JaizeFrost 1 1 0 0
Mount Ayr 58,
Murray 40
Monday night, the Raiders traveled to Murray to take on the Mustangs.
It was a slow start for a Raider offense that had just scored 73 points a few days back and defeated an unbeaten Central Decatur team.
The first score didn’t come until two minutes into the game, when the Raiders found Ryce Reynolds underneath for an easy layup.
Murray quickly tied things, but it was Jackson Ruggles that started the offense for Mount Ayr, coming off the bench with a three-pointer.
By the end of the first, the Raiders led Murray 9-4.
The Raider offense then got another shot of adrenaline as Jaize Frost came off the bench to start the second quarter, shooting and making a three-pointer, in what would be the Raiders best quarter on offense, scoring 20 and only allowing four more Mustang points.
Headed into halftime, the Raiders led 29-8.
The start of the second-half was sluggish for the Raiders, scoring 10, while allowing nine and the Raiders struggled in the fourth, allowing the Mustangs to make the game interesting before a quick Mount Ayr timeout helped get the Raiders into the correct mindset.
The Raiders finished out on top, 58-40, to improve to 10-2 on the season.
“This night’s always a tricky night,” said coach Bret Ruggles. “We left at 2:40 p.m. and sat through a JV girls, varsity girls game and it’s very hard to play a game at 7:30 when you walk in the doors at 3:30. We sat for four hours and you could see it early.”
After things got going, Ruggles was happy with their performance.
“They have a really nice big, he deters a lot of shots and I thought we did a really nice job handling him,” said Ruggles. “Jackson hit a three and Jaize hit a three that really opened up some things. Tyler Martin thinks he didn’t play well because he didn’t shoot well, but actually his rebounding tonight and defense on the big was massive tonight.”
Murray’s tight man-to-man in the second-half was what gave the Raiders a little bit of a fit.
“They played that tight man-to-man and we tried to save our legs for tomorrow night. We get teams that try to overplay us and we think we have to dribble drive and keep attacking them. We are missing layups and just got into a back-and-forth. I told our guys to spread the floor and run an offense.”
The Raiders traveled to Lenox Tuesday night for a big Pride of Iowa matchup with the Tigers.
Stats
1 2 3 4 F
MA 8 20 10 19 58
MM 4 4 9 23 40
Offense
Pts FG 3 FT
Stark 0 0-4 0-1 0-0
Reynolds 10 4-7 0-1 2-2
Frost 22 9-19 0-2 4-6
Pierson 13 5-12 3-5 0-2
Martin 2 1-6 0-3 0-0
Ruggles 7 2-6 1-3 2-2
Dugan 0 0-2 0-0 0-0
Fooken 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
JaizeFrost 4 2-3 0-1 0-0
Defense
R Ast S B
Stark 1 2 0 0
Reynolds 1 0 3 2
Frost 8 4 4 0
Pierson 9 1 2 0
Martin 1 0 2 0
Ruggles 5 4 5 1
Dugan 2 0 0 0
Fooken 0 0 0 0
JaizeFrost 4 5 0 0
