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 The story of the night was that no one could stop Peyton Taylor, who
played probably the hardest he’s played all season enroute to
recording a double-double. The sophomore scored 12 points and pulled
down 15 rebounds for the Toppers.
The Toppers were strong out of the gate in this one, according to
Coach Ryan Deibert and he was pleased with his team’s effort. “I
thought we played with the intensity we needed to play with. I
thought we came out of the gate strong and we really never let up
and continued to play strong all the way through.”
A strong first quarter set the tone for the Toppers as the purple
and gold jumped out to a 21-2 lead. Brett Huff and Dalton Litterly,
who are among area leaders in the three-point category, made it rain
3s in the first quarter to lead the Topper attack.
The Stags certainly struggled in that first quarter, with Alec Hayes
scoring the only basket at the 5:47 mark.
The Toppers continued to play better than the Stags in the second
quarter, outscoring them 16-10. At the half Mount Pulaski was up
37-12, with Huff and Litterly the scoring leaders with 11 points
each.
Now obviously the Stags were in the locker room at the half when the
Mount Pulaski cheerleaders were conducting their half-court shot
contest. As a huge crowd of young men and some little boys gathered
to take their turn tossing the ball from the center of the gym
towards the basket, it was a Stag cheerleader who drew a huge
applause from fans. Ashley Zinser stepped up to the mid-court line
and tossed a granny shot towards the basket and you got it, it went
IN! A beautiful shot by the Stag cheerleader and just maybe it put a
little spark into the Stags themselves as they did hit the hardwood
playing a better second half.
In particular, junior Alec Hayes tossed in 17 second half points for
the Stags.
However, as noted early, Mount Pulaski never let up. Aylesworth, who
plays basketball like a bull in a china shop, scored 10 of his
points in the second half. Yes, just get out of his way and let him
go. When he’s not on the floor fighting for the ball, which he
seemed to be doing a lot Friday night, he’s pretty handy to have in
the paint scoring.
Another player pretty handy on the Toppers squad is senior Will
Stewart, who finished with a solid performance of 8 points and 9
rebounds.
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While Litterly and Huff were pretty quiet in the scoring column in
the second half it was the trio of Aylesworth, Stewart and Taylor
that managed to put the Stags away.
Toss in a couple drives to the basket by sophomore G Oliver and a
three by senior Caleb Przykopanski and that’s the ballgame.
Toppers win 68-47 at home over a struggling Stag team with a 2-11
record.
In all fairness, the Stags are a young team with only two seniors on
the roster, Clay Olson and Douglas Phillips.
In the junior varsity contest it was the Stags getting the best of
the Toppers, 37-28.
The Toppers hope to get over the .500 mark next week as they travel
to Midwest Central Friday night for a Tomahawk conference matchup.
Toppers scoring
Aylesworth 13
Taylor 12
Brett Huff 12
Litterly 11
Stewart 8
Oliver 6
Przykopanski 4
Brandon Huff 2
Stags scoring
Alec Hayes 21
Baker 8
Antonio Coit-Kirk 7
Alex Vetter 5
Phillips 2
Wolpert 2
Olson 1
Austin Hayes 1
[Teena Lowery]
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