Win over Cards keeps Wynot unbeaten

WYNOT — A solid start to its game against rivals Wynot was a high point for the Randolph Cardinals boys basketball team last week.

However, the unbeaten Blue Devils used a 21-5 second quarter run of play to move out to a sizeable lead and would cruise to a 62-30 defeat of Randolph (0-6) who showed plenty of progress in the defeat.

Jacob Calder led the way for Randolph with 14 points while Collyn Beal hauled in eight boards for Randolph.

“We came out strong and led much of the first quarter,” Randolph head coach Jim Hixson said. “We had problems against their fullcourt press in the second where turnovers turned into easy points for them.

“When we get Jacob and Collyn Beal to both have strong scoring nights at the same time our success possibility will go up immensely. It seems that when one has a better scoring night the other struggles.”

Hixson noted that the score did not truly indicate the level of competitiveness the game had for a majority of the contest.

“I truly thought we played better, especially the first quarter,” Hixson said. “We must continue to work on shooting, ball handling, and rebounding. Between turnovers and offensive rebounds, we gave Wynot and additional 38 possessions. We keep improving little by little every day. As our fundamentals increase so will our success.”

Randolph was set to tip off it’s own tournament Tuesday and it will continue through to Wednesday.

Brayden Shearer said that he was happy with the Cardinals effort in the early going and a lot of the team’s inconsistency can be attributed to second quarter lapses.

“We can’t get a click going and we don’t go very deep either,” Shearer said. “We have tired guys out there. Our offense is kind of shaky at certain points, but if we can get set up and break the presses, we can stay consistent.”

Shearer said that the press break is a big challenge right now and when they do the Cardinals have to find a better transition into the halfcourt offensive flow.

“It’s harder especially with a younger team,” he said. “The attitudes are still pretty good and we are looking forward to the holiday tournament. We feel we have a chance to get a first win.

“The tournament should be a good start and into the next year we should be able to get things going. We have played some pretty good teams and in the second half we start playing easier ones in our conference. The first month and a half is always more challenging.”

Shearer said the Cardinals are playing pretty good defense, but the team gives up about “50 percent” of their points in transition off of their turnovers.

Randolph 9 5 11 5 — 30

Wynot 11 21 20 10 — 62

SCORING Randolph – Jacob Calder, 14; Jake Harder, 4; Tom Korth, 4; Collyn Beal, 3; Isaiah Salmon, 3; Brayden Shearer, 2.

REBOUNDS Randolph – Collyn Beal, 8; Jake Harder, 4; Shaw Becker, 3; Brayden Shearer, 2; Jacob Calder, 1; Bryson Eledge, 1; Justin Guenther, 1; D. Winkelbauer, 1.

ASSISTS Randolph – Collyn Beal, 1.

STEALS Randolph – Collyn Beal, 2; Jacob Calder, 1; Jake Harder, 1; Brayden Shearer, 1.

BLOCKS Randolph – Tom Korth, 1.