Mayfield’s rhythm shooting from the perimeter enables Monroe City to waltz into break riding high

QUINCY — Quincy Mayfield has been searching for his shooting touch.

He may have found it Friday night.

The junior point guard sank five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 23 points to help carry the Monroe City boys basketball team to a 66-50 victory over Payson Seymour in the 17th Rumble on the River at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center.

“Just getting back into my rhythm and shooting,” Mayfield said. “I haven’t really shot the ball that well these last few games, so let that fly.”

Mayfield’s success from behind the arc proved contagious. Six of the Panthers’ first eight made field goals came from 3-point range to open a 26-17 lead, and they finished with 10 in registering their seventh straight win and eighth in 10 games.

Trey Smyser’s 3-pointer from the left corner in the closing seconds of the first half gave Monroe City a 34-27 lead. A bucket from the block by Brent Holland and back-to-back 3-pointers by Mayfield to open the second half pushed the advantage to 42-29.

Payson Seymour, which led only once at 2-0, was unable to get closer than nine points the rest of the way and trailed by as many as 17.

“We don’t have the biggest team — we have the two guys inside that have some decent size — but it’s nice when you’re not that big you can at least shoot the basketball and kind of level the playing field a little bit,” Monroe City coach Brock Edris said.

“We have confidence in those guys. We’ve got four guys shooting close to 40 percent from the 3-point line. I thought Quincy did a good job distributing the ball, driving and kicking and finding open guys. In return, he found some good shots.”

Like Monroe City, Payson Seymour relies on its perimeter shooting. However, the Indians could not get shots to fall. They shot 33 percent from the field overall, including a 6-for-24 showing in the second half, and made just 4 of 18 tries from 3-point range.

Senior guard Lane Barker finished with 16 points, but seven of those came in the fourth quarter with his team down double digits. Leading scorer Blake Schwartz managed just one field goal and two free throws for five points before fouling out.

“They knew who our shooters were and they did a really good job of not letting us get clean, open looks,” Payson Seymour coach Tyler Duschinsky said. “They were physical, and they were aggressive.

“In contrast, we went down on the defensive end of the floor and kind of lost sight of who we needed to guard, which led to them being able to step into some wide open, uncontested threes.”

The teams spent most of a choppy, foul-plagued fourth quarter at the free throw line. Monroe City sank 13 of 14 attempts in the period, Payson Seymour 6 of 9. The teams combined to attempt 41 free throws overall.

Smyser and Cole Hays finished with 12 points apiece for the Panthers. Nolan Sparks added 11 points for the Indians, who saw their two-game winning streak snapped to fall to 3-6.