Festus used a 1-2-2 defense to clog the paint against De Soto and senior guard Owen Horsley turned in a masterpiece of a performance in the Tigers’ 48-40 victory on Friday.
“I try to come out hard every night,” said Horsley, who scored a game-high 24 points as the Tigers improved to 8-7 and are 2-2 in the Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools division. “I want to get it done for my teammates, and tonight that’s what it took.”
Horsley began the game guarding De Soto senior guard Austin West, who needed 14 points Friday to reach 1,000 for his career. Since West is the only player in Jefferson County to average 20 points per game, and because he had torched Festus for 61 points in their last two meetings, it seemed a given that at some point the game was going to be stopped and West saluted for his superb career.
Instead, his 3-point basket with 4:20 to play was the last points he scored and he ended two points shy of the mark.
“We heard about it,” Horsley said of West’s pursuit of 1,000 points. “It didn’t change anything defensively. We’re a defensive-minded team all of the time.”
Festus head coach Jason Therrell said he didn’t think his players were any more motivated than they normally are to stop West.
“Any extra motivation is fine, but no, it didn’t add anything to it,” Therrell said. “(West) is a good player and we respect what he’s done and he’s had some good games against us. Tonight’s the first night we had any success against him. I feel like every time he gets an open shot, it’s going to go in.”
After West’s last basket of the game cut the Festus lead to one, neither team scored again until 2:40 remained and junior Kobe Branscomb drilled a deep baseline 3-pointer to put the Tigers up 40-36. Junior Clayton Snudden, who scored 25 points against the Tigers on Dec. 4 in a 73-69 loss, made two free throws to make it 40-38, but Festus scored the next eight points to seal the win.
Snudden was held scoreless in the first half, but responded with 12 points in the final two quarters.
“Clayton is one of our big two,” De Soto head coach Zeb Hammond said. “When he’s on, he can shoot with the best shooters, but what I really like about him is that he plays so strong and aggressive he can get to the rim. He had trouble against the 1-2-2 and maybe that’s why (Festus) ran it.
“They surprised us with the 1-2-2 defense and we were getting good looks but we had a lot of layups at the rim that didn’t fall and we got down early and played catch-up the whole game. We had a good defensive effort but let Owen get loose too much and he did pretty much what he wanted to tonight.”
The Tigers rely on Horsley and Portell to provide the bulk of their offense, so Therrell said he was happy to see Branscomb hit the biggest shot of the game.
“The shot from the corner was probably one of the biggest shots Kobe’s ever made,” Therrell said. “Kobe always competes on defense and gets key steals and rebounds, but tonight he made the big shot.”
West scored 36 points against Festus as the Dragons (10-10, 2-1) knocked the Tigers out of the Class 4 District 2 tournament last season with a 66-54 victory, but Friday was a different story.
Hammond said he didn’t think West was chasing the 1,000 point-mark, though.
“I was disappointed with the offensive rebounds on his part,” Hammond said. “I know he was trying to get out for those points.”
Branscomb finished with eight points, but the Dragons held Portell to five points, well below his season average.
“We were able to lock (Portell) up,” Hammond said. “Every time he came off of a screen we were switching, but Owen was the killer; he was the best player on the court tonight.”
Festus hosts Seckman in a nonconference game on Friday, while De Soto doesn’t come off an 11-day break until a Jan. 30 showdown at home against unbeaten conference rival Hillsboro (17-0).