By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Billings, Mo. – The Forsyth Panthers (11-3) defeated the Billings Wildcats (10-4), 66-50, in a contest between SWCL foes. Led by senior Micaiah Rocha’s 31 points, Forsyth jumped out early on the Wildcats and never looked back.
Rocha held one of Billings’ main scorers, Jacob Smith, to just four points—something he was more proud of than his own 31 points. Coach Josh Hart of Forsyth took notice of Rocha’s defensive effort, as well.
“Rocha, he’s our guy, everybody knows that,” said Hart. “He makes our team better in every way; he can handle the ball, he can shoot, get to the rim, bust his own, inside, outside, all around. He did a great job tonight guarding Smith, their second leading scorer. Tonight he guarded him and I think the kid only make one shot on the outside and I don’t know if he did much more than that. Rocha did a great job on defense.”
At the end of the first quarter, Forsyth led 19-11. The Wildcats would claw their way back in the second quarter to get within four, 32-28, at the half. Both sides appeared to lack energy and consistency in the first half. There were many loose balls, turnover, and missed rebounds. Having played in Holiday tournaments and not in the routine of going to class may have contributed to the inconsistency.
The second half saw Forsyth run their lead to as much as 16 points while Billings saw a few key players get in foul trouble. When senior guard Luke Johnson of Billings picked up his fourth foul midway through the third quarter, he was forced to sit down and allow an underclassman to take his spot. At the end of three, Forsyth saw their lead swell to 53-40.
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Senior Anthony Stanford controlled the boards in the third quarter for Forsyth, shooting 3-for-4 from the free throw line and hitting two baseline jumpers. Stanford scored six of his 17 points in the third quarter.
“We kind of got complacent in the third quarter when we had the lead,” said Stanford. “I let the game come to me, whatever happens, happens. I can’t do it alone, there were multiple times that the only reason I got the rebound was because someone else blocked out.”
Rocha reluctantly came out of the game in the second half because his lip was bleeding from an inadvertent hand to the face in the first half.
“I don’t come out of the game very often; I don’t come out at all, actually,” said Rocha. “I came in wanting to be ball dominant. I talked to the team about it and they respect it and encouraged it. I’d just like to thank them; if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have scored as much as I did. I like to push the tempo. It feels slow in my head but I’m actually going 100 mph. The team wants me to have the ball, I talk to them, I push them to work hard and they push me. They see me as their spark plug.”
With Billings trailing 55-43 in the fourth quarter, Johnson returned to the floor. He promptly made a short jumper to put Billings down by 10. That would be as close as the Wildcats could get in the fourth quarter, as Stanford and Rocha took over and brought home the win, 66-50.
Billings was physically out-muscled by the Panthers.
“I don’t think our guys played very well tonight,” said Billings Coach Kendall Tilley. “I just feel like a physical, defensive team is going to give us problems. They got out and guarded us, and we weren’t tough enough to go post up enough and make strong moves. When we did kick it out to our shooters, and we had some shots the second half, we didn’t make them. If we don’t post up and we don’t be aggressive on the offensive end, then it is going to be tough for us to win some games. I don’t think we went after offensive boards, either. Against good teams, we are going to just have to be a little tougher.”
Forsyth maintained an up-tempo fast break style of play throughout the game, something that Coach Hart emphasizes.
“This is a tough game, but I thought we did a good job,” said Hart. “The first half we were consistent. Billings has guys that can shoot so you never know, you step out, you contest them, and then they go around you. The second half we did a better job, we came out with a little more energy. We wanted to force the issue. Their #12, Johnson, he got in some foul trouble early, and we wanted to keep him out of the paint. He gets going and they are tough. We were hoping we could come in here, win a conference game, get some energy and momentum, and then get back into the swing of things at school. Hopefully, we get better and better in the second half of the season.”
Forsyth—Micaiah Rocha-31, Anthony Stanford-17, James Kohn-8, Trevor Turner-6, Cameron Davis-4
Billings—Bobby Brown-12, Tyler Essick-11, Grant Groves-11, Luke Johnson-8, Jacob Smith-4, Colton Plowman-3, Kyler Tennis-1
