MARYVILLE – That basketball can bounce kinda funny sometimes.
Last week, the Scots appeared sure to reach 100 points for the first time in 2024-25 when they led Warren Wilson 98-51 with 3:55 remaining. Didn't happen. Final Score: 99-58.
Tuesday night at the Cooper Athletic Center, Maryville at that same 3:55 mark of the second half held an 87-53 lead over Asbury. But this go round, the "Scouts" found some rhythm and carried the Scots over the century mark. Maryville finished off a 100-61 thrashing of the Eagles to open Collegiate Conference of the South play with a resounding victory.
The "Scouts" are the role players counted on by head coach
Raul Placeres to help prepare the team during practices for the upcoming opponent. The scout team – made up at various times throughout the season of guys like
Darius Martin,
Malachi Chipp,
David Stone,
Hayden Treadwell,
Wes Walker and
Davis Ernsberger – runs the plays that Huntingdon and LaGrange and Piedmont run during practice so the starters can get a look at what to expect in the next game. The "Scouts" also get playing time when certain games are going Maryville's way.
Out of Nowhere!
And so it was Tuesday night that, sitting on 87 points, Chipp hit a jumper in the paint and
Kobe Franklin followed with a pair of free throws. Maryville led 91-55 with 2:56 remaining.
Chipp swished a corner 3-pointer and, 30 seconds later, Treadwell did the same from the opposite corner. Now the Scots were in front 97-57 with still 2:01 left on the clock.
Stone made one of two free throws with 1:24 remaining, but then Walker grabbed the rebound of the second miss and put it back in. 100 points!
"I share this with my guys all the time," Placeres said. "Some guys may not be playing in a game, but they have helped us get ready for that game. The scout team gets us ready, so they're just as important as the first group because without them, we can't get ready for our opponent.
"I was happy to see how well they played in the four or five minutes of action they got today. Got us to a hundred. It's always very rewarding to see guys who put in the work during the week get to play. I tell them all the time, 'Let's play so hard and so well that everyone can taste some minutes on the floor.
"We definitely did that tonight."
Bench Production
Maryville's 31 bench points were the second-most of the season, topped only by last week's 33 against Warren Wilson. The Scots shot 54.4 percent from the field, which is third on the season, trailing only 54.7 percent against both Berry and Roanoke. And the 50.0 percent (14-of-28) from 3-point distance trailed only the 54.5 percent (12-of-22) at Roanoke.
The 22 assists trailed only last week's 31 versus Warren Wilson among the season superlatives.
"We shared it well from top to the bottom – 22 assists on 37 made field goals, which is a great number," Placeres said. "Any time you assist on 50 percent or more of your makes, you're sharing the basketball. But a great complement to that was the fact that we took care of the basketball. We had only six turnovers as a team, so that's almost a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and that's pretty special.
"I like the way we shot it. We shot over 45-35-70 (FG-3FG-FT percentages), which is always one of our key numbers to finding a win. But I loved our energy, loved our toughness, loved our defensive mentality today and the numbers we held them to, with 61 points, below 35 percent from the field and less than 15 percent from three. A great way to start our conference season."
Top 10 Nationally in 3-Point Percentage
Reed Kemp paced the scoring column with 21 points thanks to 5-of-8 from 3-point range. Kemp is up to 48.4 percent from long distance, ranking among the top 10 nationally in that category. He leads the CCS with 44 made threes, followed closely by teammate
Jackson Garner with 41.
Kemp also leads the league in scoring at 22.9. He is closing in on 1,000 career points counting the 157 points he scored over two seasons at Missouri Western State in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The Franklin native has scored 813 with the Scots, meaning he still has a great chance to join the list of 1,000-point scorers in Maryville men's basketball history.
Chase Morgan at 808 and Garner at 788 are making it a fun three-way race to 1K.
Morgan is tied for ninth in the Maryville records book with 60 blocked shots. He had three Tuesday night. And Garner needs just 15 more 3-pointers to reach the Maryville top 10. He was 4-of-8 against Asbury and has 161 for his career. The all-time MC record is 256 by Calvin Songster (2014-19).
"That's pretty cool," Placeres said. "It says a lot about the program and the type of kids you have that you're able to have three guys closing in on a thousand points. It's a team game, but they each share the ball so well. They deserve everything they get because they put the work in."
14th Straight Victory vs. CCS
Tuesday's win was Maryville's sixth straight and improved the Scots to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in the CCS. It was Maryville's 14th consecutive win against a CCS opponent. Asbury dropped to 4-10 and 0-2.
Maryville has a road weekend ahead, with games at LaGrange on Friday and Huntingdon on Saturday. LaGrange lost 110-82 at Piedmont on Tuesday to fall to 4-12 overall and 0-4 in the CCS, while Huntingdon won 103-74 at Covenant to improve to 13-2 overall and 3-0 in conference.
"The road games are really hard, and you've got to be mentally tough and you've got to bring the physicality to it," Placeres said. "We have an opponent who is not having the season they anticipated having, and another who is having probably as good of a start in their program's history.
"So, yeah, two different teams with two different trajectories, but probably with the same goal, which is a win against us makes their season. We've got to get better these next two day and hopefully we will have a good game plan going into Friday night at LaGrange."
