Titans’ offense stampedes Mustangs, scoring 35 points in second quarter of tournament rout

WARSAW, Ill. — Mendon Unity boys basketball coach Keith Carothers was brutally honest Tuesday night when he was breaking down his club’s 91-42 loss to West Hancock.

“They could have scored 120,” Carothers said.

He meant the observation as both a compliment of West Hancock’s performance, which was accented by repeated end-to-end mercurial runs by the Titans’ fast-break attack, plus what Carothers felt was a lack of effort from Unity.

“We knew West Hancock was good, but our kids weren’t ready to play and really didn’t show up,” Carothers said. “We’re going to be focusing on defense the next couple of days in practice.”

West Hancock (16-4) put the kibosh on Unity (12-6) during the third round of the 104th Hancock County Tournament at Warsaw High School.

West Hancock is now 2-0 in the round-robin affair, while Unity dropped to 2-1. All five competing schools play a four-game schedule in the tourney that concludes Saturday night.

“Our game plan is to run the floor,” said West Hancock 6-foot-9 junior center Cooper Knowles, who is often the finisher on those eye-opening Titan breaks. “It was fun by the third quarter.”

West Hancock blew the game wide open in the second quarter, outscoring Unity 35-14 to lead 57-21 at intermission. Another 25 points in the third quarter gave the Titans 82 points after 24 minutes.

West Hancock coach Jeff Dahl substituted freely over the first three quarters and allowed backups to play the entire fourth stanza.

“Our pace was really good,” Dahl said. “I liked our effort.”

Who wouldn’t have?

Knowles finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots in about two quarters of play. Hunter Froman (17), Lewis Siegfried (12) and Nolan Gooding (10) also reached double figures for the Titans. 

West Hancock punctuated its impressive offense with nine 3-pointers, including three from Froman in what amounted to a highlight reel of a second quarter.

Dahl says there is still room for improvement.

“We’ve been concentrating on creating problems with our defense,” he said. “We did a good job of keeping the pressure on (against Unity), but we still need to move better on defense.”

The Titans play Southeastern (6-12) next in the tournament at 7:30 p.m. Friday. West Hancock and Illini West (14-6) wrap up the tournament at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in what will likely be the de facto championship game. Illini West toppled West Prairie in Tuesday’s other game 61-42.

Sawyer Allen (13) and Adler Gray (8) led Unity scoring, as they have all tournament. The duo has scored 120 of Unity’s 192 points in the event. Allen’s 34-point effort in Unity’s 80-72 overtime win against West Prairie last Saturday represents the top single-game scoring total so far in the tournament.