MEDORA

Knowing that Shoals possessed a strong offense, quickness and a lot of depth, Medora boys basketball coach Mark Morin said his Hornets knew they would have to play their best game of the season to come up with a win Saturday night.

After three minutes of play, an upset by the home team seemed possible as the Hornets held a 7-5 lead.

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Once the Jug Rox began hitting on all cylinders, the Hornets’ chances of a victory disappeared, as Shoals won 82-40.

The main problem for the Hornets was turnovers.

“We had 36 turnovers,” Morin said. “We need to hold our turnovers down to 15 a game. Thirty-six doesn’t get it. They were aggressive, and the way the officials let them play, that kind of played into their hands.

“They were letting them reach and hack and bang. That’s the way Shoals plays, so we had to deal with it, and we didn’t deal with it very well.”

Owen Sullivan got off to a good start offensively, as his 3-point basket put Medora on top 5-4 at the 6:20 mark, and he followed that with a layup that put Medora up 7-5.

Shoals then went on a 10-0 run to go up 15-7 and led the rest of the way. Dayson Wright, Klayton Tichenor and Reece Sherrill all hit 3-pointers in the first period, as Shoals opened up a 20-11 lead.

After Sullivan drove for a layup to cut Shoals’ lead to 26-16 three minutes into the second period, the visitors went on a 6-0 run to double the score on Medora at 32-16 and built their lead to 46-25 at the half.

Shoals opened the second half on an 11-0 run to lead 57-25 before Caleb Sturgill scored for the Hornets with 4:15 left in the quarter to make it a 57-27 game, and Shoals led 69-31 going into the fourth period.

Morin said Sullivan had an excellent weekend.

“I thought Owen Sullivan played really well. We had him with 17 points and 12 rebounds. (Friday) night, he scored 26,” he said. “He was 10-for-11 from the field, so he’s had a good weekend.”

Sturgill came off the bench to score 12 points for the Hornets.

Wright topped Shoals (5-1) with 17 points, Tichenor scored 15 and Sherrill had 13.

“They’re a good ball club,” Morin said. “They beat Southridge (Friday) night and they beat Loogootee. They’re strong, athletic.

“We played hard. We were coming off a game (Friday) night, which was one of our better games of the year (58-49 loss to Orleans). I knew this would be a tough game. I was hoping we would come back and play hard again, and I felt like we did play hard.”

Medora (1-8) will play at Columbus Christian Friday night. The girls will play at 5 p.m., followed by the boys JV and varsity games.