Central High boys pull away from Empire

COMANCHE - If Central High boys basketball coach Kenny McGough was worried about his team being overconfident in their matchup against Empire in the first round of the Stephens County Tournament on Tuesday, he didn’t have to wait long to find out they were not.

The No. 4 seed Bronchos had defeated the No. 5 seed Bulldogs by 11 points in December. They made sure that Empire wouldn’t get its revenge at the county tournament as they scored the first six points of the game and would never trail in a 61-40 win.

The point margin was even a little surprising to McGough.

“They are a well-coached basketball team over there, so to be honest, no (I wasn’t expecting a big win), but we kind of played really well early and we put a little pressure on them. They really didn’t respond to the punch we gave them. Tonight, it just didn’t go their way.”

Empire cut the lead to one point on a three-pointer by Damian Goldsberry with 3:15 to go in the first quarter that made the score, 6-5. The Bulldogs would get no closer, however, as the Bronchos went on to take an 18-10 lead into the second quarter.

Central High’s Luke Thrasher gave Empire problems in the opening quarter, scoring eight of his game-high 17 points in the first quarter.

Central High players managed to work themselves wide open for shots on several trips down the floor. McGough said it wasn’t anything special that his players were doing to get the open shots.

“We teach kids to play basketball, so we’re not out there running a bunch of plays, a bunch of sets,” McGough said. “This group’s been together for a long time now so they kind of just figured each other out.”

It also has been the unselfish play.

“Nobody cares who gets the credit,” McGough said. “We got our three best kids averaging 14, 13 and 12 points a game. So, it’s just one of those things that we just teach them to just love each other. If you love each other, it shows up on the floor.”

Central High is a young team with only one senior on the squad. Two juniors and two sophomores join the senior, Dirk McGough, in the starting line-up.

“We’re young, so we make some stupid mistakes,” McGough said. “We go through lapses where we are playing really well and then in the same quarter for two or three minutes we’ll do something silly. It’s about youth right now. We’ve got one returning starter from last year so they’re still learning to play.”

Empire was never able to get a big run on the Bronchos to try to climb back into the game. Central High led 31-17 at the half and then outscored Empire 22-12 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.

Central High advances to the semifinal to take on top seed Velma-Alma at 5:20 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams met earlier this season with Velma-Alma taking a 61-45 win.

“It was a pretty close ballgame,” McGough said. “The score got away from us at the end, but I expect to give them everything we got. So, we’re expecting a good ballgame.”

Empire will play Bray-Doyle in the consolation bracket on Friday at 5:20 p.m.

Scoring

Central High (11-5): Luke Thrasher, 17; Ethan Brummett, 15; Tyler Minden, 10; Landon Johnson, 6; Gage Lewis, 3; Kutter Jackson, 3; Jamison Scott, 3; Mitchell Owens, 2; Wesson Parker, 2

Empire (7-8): Rylan Miller, 10; Cale Porter, 9; Damian Goldsberry, 9; Bryce Shaver, 4; Johnathan Simmons, 2