Holthaus, Bombers dial in from perimeter, shoot down Eagles to get back on track

LIBERTY, Ill. — Braden Holthaus admittedly has been searching for his shot during much of the early portion of the basketball season.

The Macomb junior guard may have finally found it.

Holthaus sank four of his seven 3-pointers in the first quarter — most well beyond the arc — to propel the Bombers to an early 14-point lead Friday night en route to a 72-58 road victory over Liberty.

The relief was etched on his face afterward.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit from three,” said Holthaus, who scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the opening 11 minutes. “I think in the last game I missed five or six, or something like that.

“We’ve been a little rusty coming straight from football. We’ve struggled moving the ball and finding the open guy, so it was nice to find my shot and get back in rhythm. Hopefully I can continue it.”

Macomb was torrid from the perimeter in the early going, sinking five 3-pointers in the first quarter to open a 26-12 lead and three more to extend its advantage to 39-18 midway through the second.

When the Bombers did miss early, center Dion Doyle and forward Ian Case often were able to use their quickness and size advantage to snare rebounds to create second-chance scoring opportunities. 

Liberty, meanwhile, had as many turnovers (4) as field goals in the first quarter and struggled to get the ball inside to either Levi Hoener or Tanner Gimm.

“We did a nice job moving the ball and finding Braden. They realized he was hot,” said Macomb coach Jeremy Anderson, whose team had lost three straight after opening the season with seven consecutive victories. 

“It was nice to see the ball go through the hoop early. That just grows everyone’s confidence. We needed to see success again. Doubt starts to creep into your mind when you lose three in a row, so this was a good step in the right direction for us.”

However, just when it appeared they were going to run away and hide, the Bombers became impatient. They began to force shots and went cold from the perimeter, and the Eagles responded with an offensive rhythm of their own.

Two inside buckets by Hoener and 3-pointers by Vince Cramsey and Reed Sparrow fueled a 10-0 run, and Cramsey’s putback of a Jack Sparrow miss at the buzzer cut the deficit to a more manageable 41-30 at halftime.

“We had a rough start, similar to the game against Beardstown,” Liberty coach Greg Altmix said. “They’re a good team and they shot the ball well. We helped them out a little bit. We lost some guys (on defense).

“We very easily could have rolled over, and I think two weeks ago we probably would have, especially with our young guys. But we battled and never gave up. And that’s the thing right now that I’m most excited about with these guys.”

The comeback bid quickly fizzled, however. With Doyle and Case dominating inside on the offensive end and the defense forcing four early turnovers, Macomb scored 14 of the opening 16 points of the third quarter to regain control.

Three-pointers by Holthaus and Case and a layup by Drew Watson off a turnover punctuated that spurt to push the lead to 55-32 with 4:21 left in the period. 

“We run some high-low game and (Doyle and Case) do a nice job of cutting to the bucket when the other guy has the ball,” Anderson said. “Hopefully we can build on that.”

Despite holding the Bombers to four field goals the rest of the way, Liberty was never able to get closer than 12 points.

In addition to Holthaus, Doyle finished with 18 points, Case 16 and guard Malachi Conley 10 for Macomb, which entered the game averaging 49.6 points per game and having not scored more than 58 in a contest.

Meanwhile, Cramsey finished with 17 points for Liberty, with 13 of those coming in the first half. Hoener and Gimm were more effective inside in the second half to finish with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

However, the Eagles continued their season-long struggle from the perimeter, managing just five field goals outside of close range. They also turned the ball over 19 times.

“Sooner or later, we’ve got to get an actual victory,” said Altmix, whose youthful squad has dropped nine of its first 11 games. “We wanted a tough schedule, and we play good teams, and that’s going to make us better.

“Our goal is to be ready to go when February rolls around. You always want to win ballgames, but the ones in February and March are always a little bit sweeter than the ones in December.”