For the third straight year, Montezuma’s boys are going to the State 1A Basketball tournament. The Braves earned their trip to State by defeating Mount Ayr 64-29 in Knoxville Saturday night (2/27) in the Substate 6 championship game. While Montezuma is best known for its offense, Coach Derrick Dengler says defense was the key to Saturday’s win.
“I was really pleased, first of all, how we played defensively–held Mount Ayr to ten points in the first half, I think it was. Regardless of what you do on the other end of the floor, when you do that, you’re going to give yourself a shot. And we were able to get some easy buckets inside early and extend the lead and made it really easy. But I started with our focus and effort defensively, for sure.”
Masin Shearer and Eddie Burgess both scored 16 points as Montezuma won its 17th in a row and improved to 22-2 on the season. The Braves’ first opponent at State will be 25-0 Lake Mills…and that game will be next Monday, March 8 at 2:00 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. You can hear Montezuma State Tournament basketball on KBOE-FM.
