By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Rossville boys continued their perfect start to the new year, following up a victory over Rock Creek last Friday with a Thursday night romp over visiting Valley Heights, 75-43.
Rossville sophomore Jack Donovan scored 20 points Thursday night as the Bulldawgs rolled to a 75-43 win over Valley Heights. [File photo/TSN]
Rossville junior Mason Jones (10) scored 12 points while posting a perfect shooting night in the Bulldawgs' 75-43 win over Valley Heights. [File photo/TSN]
Rossville got out of the gate with a bang. Sophomore Cameron Miller stole a pass in the backcourt and jammed it over a defender at the other end to register a three-point play to open the Bulldawgs’ scoring.
Just seconds later, a three-pointer by Jack Donovan had the home team off and running.
Rossville jumped out to a 23-16 advantage in the first period, then held the visitors to just nine points in each of the next three quarters. The Bulldawg full-court press tormented the Mustangs all night, turning them over and rushing them into harried shots.
“It takes five people to (apply an effective press),” Rossville coach Brandon McDonnell said. “We don’t want to be lazy, so we have to have active feet, we have to have active hands and we have to have an active brain to know exactly what we’re doing out there. Today we got a really good glimpse of that. Once we have a taste of success, we want more of it. They had it tonight and they wanted to keep it going.”
Donovan paced the Bulldawgs with 20 points. Kameron Badura produced 16, and Mason Jones and Tayson Horak each had 12.
Jones, a transfer from Topeka West, hit a perfect 4-4 shots from the field – including a dunk in traffic – and 4-4 from the free throw line.
“I had a good connection with the coach, and I felt like it was a good fit out here,” Jones said about changing schools. “It’s like a family atmosphere. There’s nothing more that I could ask for.”
With the win, the 4-4 Bulldawgs are approaching their win total of seven from the previous season. In years prior, four wins hadn’t always been achieved.
“I don’t want to say (we’re) content, which we should never be. But we are 4-4 right now, so we can be a little happy about that,” said McDonnell. “In previous years it’s taken us a little bit longer to get (to four wins).
“We’re .500 with St. Marys coming in tomorrow which is a great team. So, we’re going to really have to buckle down and play hard. We had to make that statement game tonight. We had to make sure that we played hard from the tip to the buzzer going into the next game.”
Rossville played all sophomores and juniors Thursday. McDonell downplayed the inexperience of his team, however.
“There’s always a learning curve whether they’re young or old,” McDonnell said. “It’s really just the buy in of the kids. You want to make sure that you give them the confidence that they need to go out there and play hard not only for their team but for the school. That starts with being the best version of yourself.”
“I feel like we’re in a good space right now,” Jones said. “There were some games we feel like we could have won. But that’s in the past now. We’re just looking forward to the rest of our season.”
ROSSVILLE BOYS 75, VALLEY HEIGHTS 43
Valley Heights 16 9 9 9 -- 43
Rossville 23 16 24 12 -- 75
Valley Heights (3-5) – Spoonts 0-3 1-2 1, DeWalt 1-7 3-4 6, Gray 4-9 2-2 11, Ekstrum 2-11 4-6 8, Bigham 1-2 0-0 2, Slifer 4-5 0-2 8, Shanks 0-1 3-4 3, Denton 2-2 0-0 4, Unruh 0-0 0-0 0, Riesen 0-0 0-0 0, Parker 0-0 0-0 0, Warders 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-40 13-20 43.
Rossville (4-4) – Badura 5-8 6-8 16, Donovan 8-19 0-0 20, Jones 4-4 4-4 12, Miller 2-5 2-3 6, Horak 4-9 0-0 12, Mildren 3-4 0-0 6, B. Bush 0-1 0-0 0, McDonell 1-2 1-1 3, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, C. Bush 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-52 13-16 75.
3-point goals – Valley Heights 2 (DeWalt 1, Gray 1), Rossville 8 (Donovan 4, Horak 4). Total fouls – Valley Heights 12, Rossville 16. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.
