Leyton has little trouble in first round

The Leyton Warriors took their first step towards a MAC boys basketball title with little interference from the South Platte Blue Knights on Tuesday night in Dalton.

The No. 2 Warriors jumped out to a 17-0 lead and never looked back as they cruised to a 49-15 first-round win.

The victory earns Leyton a trip to Sidney on Thursday for a matchup with No. 3 Garden County. The Eagles stalled Creek Valley's title hopes, 61-42.

No. 4 Potter-Dix also advanced after beating fifth seeded Banner County 67-42 Tuesday night in their home gym. The Coyotes earned the right to meet top seed Minatare at 3 p.m. tomorrow at SMS. The Leyton-Garden County matchup is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. tip off at the same venue.

With South Platte suffering through a down year and struggling to an 0-10 record on the season thus far, there appeared little doubt the quicker and more talented Warriors would prevail in its first-round game. While Head Coach Gary Oltmann was pleased to be moving on he did share some concerns over his team's offensive performance.

"We were hitting a lot of layups but we didn't shoot well from the outside," said Oltmann. "We were able to work on some things we wanted to but I'm not happy with one-for-22 three point shooting."

With 4 points each, Dylan Brenner and Cody McKay accounted for eight of the Warriors 11 first-quarter points. Seth Schuessler added a free throw and Brennen Cruise a layup. The shutout continued into the second quarter when Cruise and Alex W. Frerichs got into the act with a layup apiece.

"We struggled a bit running through our offense and we shot poorly from the outside," said Frerichs in agreement with his coach. "We didn't have as good an effort as we've had in recent games, but I'm sure that will change."

The Warriors opening buckets of the second were completed after nice feeds from McKay, who scored Leyton's final uninterupted hoop for a 17-0 lead.

Blake Odenbaugh finally broke the string for the Blue Knights with a free throw with 5:33 left in the half.

South Platte's first field goal did not come until 14:41 had elapsed. Kris Kopetsky turned the trick on a short jumper after retrieving an offensive rebound. Eleven seconds later Kopetsky scored again. Kenny Ernest had the last say, however, as he ended the half with a duece with 11 seconds left.

Leyton's halftime advantage reached 25-5.

"We kept playing hard as a team," said the freshman Ernest who was one of 11 Warriors to score. "We still need to shoot better and cut down on our turnovers."

South Platte's Odenbaugh was the first to stretch the twine in the second half, but Leyton returned the favor with 11 straight points.

Frerichs hit the Warriors only three of the game in the midst of the run. The Warriors streak was ended when South Platte hit its first of two threes courtesy of Austin Mujllen.

Leyton, with points from David Blanke and Josh Riemers, ended the third with 5 straight.

Freshman Zach Hellie added his name to the scoring sheet with a pair of baskets in the final eight minutes of play. Meanwhile a South Platte freshman, Will Spencer, gave the Knights a glimpse into their future as he drained a three pointer.

Alex C. Frerichs scored the last hoop of the contest in the waning seconds.

Since the Warriors have yet to play Garden County this year, there are some unknowns the coaching staff will be looking to have uncovered by game time tomorrow.

"From what we know of them from last year we should be able to beat them if we play our game," said McKay who has been scoring with more regularity of late. "As for me I'm just trying to relax more and not worry so much and I'm playing better because of it."

McKay was the high scorer with 10 points while Cruise had 8 and Alex W. Frerichs 7.

Boys Basketball

Leyton 49

S. Platte 15