BY DEREK SHORE
He was not ice Cohl Vaden on Tuesday night.
But Vaden was white-hot shooting from the 3-point arc.
The Webb City shooting guard dropped a career- high 28 points and hit seven triples to power the Cardinals to an 81-55 basketball victory over Crane on Tuesday night at the Cardinal Dome.
"I shot a lot this week, and I'm finally getting back into things," Vaden said. "Coach has always given me the green light because of the work I have put in. I feel like I'm in a rhythm now."
Vaden, who entered the game averaging 13.2 points per game this season, shot 8 of 13 from the field and knocked down 77% of his nine attempts from beyond the arc.
He capped a terrific night shooting by nailing 5 of 6 free throws.
"He's always got the green light," Webb City coach Jason Horn said. "He puts a lot of time in our shooting program. They have a set number of rounds they have to pass before getting green lights. He's one of those guys who puts his time in. A lot of unseen hours from him putting in the work. It paid off tonight."
Webb City took advantage of its up-tempo style of offense early, getting easy layups in transition and uncontested shots from the outside.
Vaden's first triple was from the left corner at the 5:26 mark to put the Cardinals up 11-4 to force a Crane timeout.
Nickhai Howard extended Webb City's lead to 24-11 after an acrobatic one-handed layup to end the first quarter. Vaden then buried a trio of 3-pointers in the second quarter to give Webb City a 41-25 halftime lead.
The Cardinals did not let up on the gas pedal in the second half, taking a commanding 64-36 advantage in the third quarter after Vaden connected from deep twice in a one-minute span to seal the game.
"(Controlling the tempo) is always an emphasis for us," Horn said. "We want to get the game going up and down. The more possessions for us, we feel, is the better. Defensively, I thought we were really good at times. We have got to do a better job of keeping their point guard out of the lane. For the most part, I thought we read screens well off their sets and were able to challenge their shots. We did a great job rebounding the basketball in the second half. It's been a pleasant surprise for us. Good effort from everybody. We were able to get some guys in and get some experience. We were down a couple of guys tonight, but we had some guys step up and play well. That's going to be big down the stretch."
Webb City finished with three players in double figures, including Luke Brumit with 17 points and Howard with 13. Brumit, who threw down two dunks,posted his first double-double of the season with 10 rebounds and also blocked five shots.
"Luke runs the rim really well," Horn said. "He gained a lot of experience last year that is helping him out this year. He's really good at running the rim. He knows the guards are going to find him. He does a good job of burying his man under the basket if we can't get him in transition. When we can get him running like that, that puts a lot of pressure on the defense. That really opens up things for our shooters. I think that helped Cohl a lot also."
Isaiah Smith finished with a team-high 20 points for Crane. The senior hit a 3 to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career in the third quarter.
Webb City heads into Christmas break with its record at 5-1. The Cardinals play Joplin to open the Kaminsky Classic at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 7.
"I like where we are at as a team," Horn said. "We are doing a good job of sharing the ball. They are playing really selfless right now, and they're bought into the defensive side of the ball. This is the best start we've had since I got here five years ago going into break. We really want to capitalize on it. We don't want this to be the highlight. We want to continue to get better. It's not going to be easier when we get back from break because Kaminsky is always tough."
Joplin Globe 12/23/2020 (Used by permission)