For the second straight night, the Capital City Cavaliers used a huge third-quarter run to claim a win.
The Cavaliers beat the Monroe City Panthers 60-42 at Capital City High School on Friday to win consecutive games for the first time this season.
“Energy is contagious, both positive and negative,” Capital City coach Darrin Young said. “… Everything has to be on point. We’ve been really harping on them about how they have to be consistent with all the little things.”
Gallery: Capital City Boys Basketball vs. Monroe City
Capital City got two more great performances from Aman Kesete and Nehemiah Hamilton. After scoring 38 points and bringing in five rebounds Thursday, Hamilton had 17 points, five assists, five steals and three rebounds. Kesete surpassed 20 points for consecutive games, scoring 22 Friday after a 23-point showing Thursday.
The teams went back and forth with seven lead changes in the first six minutes, but the Cavaliers ended the opening segment on a 11-0 run to take an 18-13 lead into the first break. Hamilton powered the run, assisting Kesete on one of his five 3-pointers s to start it, then turning a steal into a layup before poking another steal to Colby Gates for another layup. Hamilton poked away another steal, then assisted Gates for a right-corner 3 before Kesete turned an offensive board into a made free throw to complete the run.
The Panthers cut the lead to 18-17 to start the third quarter, but Capital City extended to a 29-20 advantage after a John Hightower right-wing 3, three of his 10 points, and a Hightower steal-turned-assist to Hamilton for a layup.
Monroe City hit four consecutive free throws to bring Capital City’s lead down to 29-24 at halftime.
“We are working to build our discipline,” Young said. “… I’m hoping that winning how we did today, collectively, will build a greater belief in what we’re saying.”
Just like Thursday, the Cavaliers took advantage of Panther mistakes in the third quarter.
Hamilton drove for a layup off a DJ Pritchett assist, then a Monroe City turnover turned into a Kesete pull-up right-wing 3 and Hamilton turned another steal into a layup to put the Cavaliers up 36-24 with 6:26 left.
Hamilton assisted Brooks Horton for a layup in transition, Kesete hit a 3 off a Horton assist and Hamilton connected on a pull-up jumper to put the Cavaliers up 43-24 with 3:38 left. Hightower then connected on a layup and a right-wing 3 to extend the run to 19-0 with 2:41 left in the third.
Monroe City collected its lone third-quarter points when Jaylyn Countryman hit a layup through contact and made the and-1 free throw with 2:24 left. Capital City went into the final break leading 48-27.
In its past two games, Capital City has outscored its opponents 41-3 in the third quarter.
“In this game, our guards did a really good job of going back and pursuing rebounds,” Young said. “Guys who initially weren’t making contact, were just standing on the perimeter waiting for the ball to come to them or for a big to go get it, they were actually going in and crashing. … You’ve got to make sure you’ve got as many guys with hands on the ball to make sure they don’t get another possession. I think we did a really good job of that today.”
The Cavaliers maintained about a 20-point advantage through the fourth with Capital City extending as far as 51-27 and Monroe City getting as close as 51-32.
Capital City made 23-of-45 (51.1 percent) from the field, 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) from beyond the arc and 6-of-8 (75 percent) from the free throw line.
“We got a lot of deflections today,” Young said. “Deflections lets me know that we’re very engaged in the game. We’ve got to keep getting deflections and we’ve got to keep playing hard. I thought we did a really good job of being unselfish, but we’ve got to keep rebounding. … I thought we also did a good job of uplifting each other.”
Monroe City connected on 14-of-38 (36.8 percent) of its tries from the field, 6-of-20 (30 percent) from 3 and 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) at the line.
Capital City (7-13) is off for a week until it will try to keep its win streak going when it hosts Hallsville at 7:30 p.m. next Friday.
Monroe City (6-12) will host South Shelby on Tuesday.