:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/RSJFIG54BIFUDDQOPMJV32R7TQ.jpg)
MONROE — Reed Worth is in some kind of offensive zone.
Four nights after setting a new career high in points, the Mustang senior matched it with a career-best 30 points during a blowout win over Greene County on Tuesday night.
The Mustangs got back on the winning track with an 83-41 home victory over the Rams in Heart of Iowa Conference play.
Worth came into the game averaging 24.5 points per game. He has scored at least 21 points in each game this season and put in 26, 28 and 30 in his last three contests.
“I like to feel out the defense to see how they are going to play me,” Worth said. “If they leave me open, I will pull the trigger. I am not afraid to miss shots.
“There is a 50-50 chance it goes in. That’s pretty good odds.”
PCM also got a 20-point, 13-rebound double-double by senior Andrew Van Ryswyk and a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double by junior Derek Brown. It was the first double-double of Brown’s career.
“Andrew has been doing that all year. That’s what he does,” Worth said. “Derek started off slow, but I think he’s getting some confidence. He is figuring out his role and seeing where he fits in. He was big on the boards, and we need that stuff more often.”
Also big for the Mustangs against the Rams was a 2-3 defense that PCM coach Fred Lorensen said suited the gameplan because Greene County was without its best player, Trey Hinote, and there weren’t as many shooters on the floor to defend.
“A little bit of it had to do with their personnel but some of it had to do with us, too. We think we might be better in that,” Lorensen said. “The verdict is still out on that though. We did a good job out of it tonight. But they were missing their best player who can make a lot of shots. Tonight, they only had two or three guys we had to worry about on the perimeter. So it was easy for us to go to the zone.”
PCM was active in the zone, getting in the passing lanes often. Worth finished with nine steals on the top of the zone, and the team finished with 17 steals overall.
“Our defense was really good tonight,” Worth said. “We had a lot of tipped passes and shut them down early. I think that flustered them some, and we were able to take advantage.”
Greene County scored the first bucket of the game and held a 4-3 lead before Brown scored inside to give the Mustangs the lead for good.
Worth made five 3-pointers in the game and his first one banked in from the top of the key. A trey by Van Ryswyk put the Mustangs up 13-8 and Worth swished home another triple that put PCM up 18-12.
The lead grew to 26-15 after the Mustangs scored eight of the first 11 points of the second quarter. PCM hit four 3-pointers in the frame, two each from Worth and sophomore Gatlin Boell.
A three-point play by Worth in the final seconds gave the Mustangs their largest lead of the half at 43-21. Worth scored 24 of his 30 points in the first two quarters.
“Reed is just a really aggressive kid. He’s playing really well right now,” Lorensen said. “We need to get Andrew more shots. We sometimes neglect him. He’s a good shooter, too, and is a great inside-outside guy.
“We are going to go as far as those two take us, but we need everyone else because two guys can’t play this game by themselves.”
Van Ryswyk got some shots in the third quarter. He scored 11 of his 20 in the third. He started the period with a layup and then Brown hit a pair of free throws and then drilled a 3-pointer to put PCM up 50-26.
Van Ryswyk scored seven straight points to extend the lead to 59-30, and Worth hit a layup and got fouled in the closing seconds. The three-point play sent the Mustangs (3-2 overall, 2-1 in HOIC play) to fourth quarter with a 62-30 advantage.
PCM scored the final 10 points of the third and the first eight of the fourth to push the margin to 40.
The 18-0 run ended with back-to-back treys by sophomore Grant Landgrebe and Worth. The Mustangs hit 11 3-pointers in the game.
Lorensen went to his reserves for the most of the fourth quarter. Sophomore Sage Burns made a pair of free throws, junior Cooper Vandelune converted a layup and senior Jordon DeVries connected on a pair of buckets inside the lane to complete the fourth-quarter scoring.
PCM outscored Greene County (3-3, 1-3) 25-9 in the second, 19-9 in the third and 21-11 in the fourth.
“Reed and Andrew are our big guns on offense, but we need others to step up, too,” Lorensen said. “Derek had a big night. Isaac is missing some shots around the hoop, but when he starts making those, he’ll score a lot because he is super active. He did do a great job of keeping the ball alive for us though. He didn’t always make the basket, but without him we wouldn’t have made as many baskets.”
Telfer finished with five points, eight rebounds and three assists. Junior Jason Stafford did not score but dished out six assists. Worth and Landgrebe grabbed six boards and Boell scored six points.
“There will be nights where Isaac will score some points,” Lorensen said of Telfer. “But he’s so good defensively and so good on the boards that he doesn’t need to worry about points. Everything else he does helps us.”
Brown moved inside the 3-point line to help dominate the paint with Van Ryswyk and Telfer. He scored 11 points but only made one 3-pointer.
“He’s so good inside when goes in there,” Lorensen said of Brown. “I hope tonight is good thing to look at when figuring out if he should do that more. He missed some shots, too, but those will fall, and we’ll need that effort out of him all season.”
Greene County played its third full game without Hinote, who leads the team at 20 points per game. The Rams got 23 points from Lance Hughes and Carter Morton added 10.
PCM heads back on the road to face Nevada at 6 p.m. on Friday in Nevada. The Mustangs host Class 3A Knoxville at 6 p.m. on Saturday in Monroe.
Greene County 12-9-9-11 — 41
PCM 18-25-19-21 — 83
Greene County (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): John Rosado 1-0-2-2, Nick Breon 0-0-5-0, Carter Morton 3/2-2-0-10, Lance Hughes 8/2-5-2-23, Caden Lowmiller 0-2-2-2, Cael Fisher 2-0-2-4, Xavier Hayes 0-0-3-0. Totals 14/4-9-17-41.
PCM (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Jason Stafford 0-0-4-0, Reed Worth 11/5-3-3-30, Andrew Van Ryswyk 7/2-4-1-20, Isaac Telfer 2-1-3-5, Derek Brown 3/1-4-1-11, Cooper Vandelune 1-0-0-2, Sage Burns 0-2-3-2, Gatlin Boell 2/2-0-0-6, Brayden Bergen 0-0-1-0, Grant Landgrebe 1/1-0-1-3, Jordon DeVries 2-0-2-4. Totals 29/11-14-19-83.