By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The basket came with the game already out of reach, Greenwood leading by 40 points at Golden City.
Aminu Mohammed’s reverse layup with 2:10 remaining in the third quarter gave him 29 points for the night and 1,501 for his Greenwood career. The junior reached the scoring milestone in just 42 career games.
Mohammed finished with a game-high 34 points and Greenwood stayed unbeaten with a 91-57 road win on a rainy Friday night.
“I didn’t realize that,” Mohammed said after the game. “I’m not keeping the score but that’s great that happened tonight. That was amazing.”
“Every player doesn’t get to achieve that,” he said. “For me I thank God for that and I’m just going to keep working hard.”
The Blue Jays (12-0) got off to a quick start in the first quarter and ended it on a 12-0 run to lead 28-7 after eight minutes.
Freshman Kaden Stuckey scored the first points of the game and finished with six in the quarter while Mohammed added 12 points, five rebounds and at least three assists.
Golden City (8-2) turned it over eight times.
“They have an awfully good basketball team and we knew they would be ready and that this place would be full and it was and it was loud,” Greenwood coach Darren Taylor said. “We thought getting out to a quick start was important and I thought we rotated our defenses really well early in the game.”
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Golden City standout senior Arlo Stump, the school’s all-time leading scorer, was held scoreless in the first quarter and finished with four points in the first half. He went on to score 21 in the game, just a tick below his season average entering Friday.
“Obviously he’s such a great talent that we tried heavily to make sure we knew where he was at and at least have one-and-a-half people on him and then with traps try to get it out of his hands,” Taylor said.
Golden City coach Michael Reeves said Stump’s three-point shots weren’t falling and a pair of 6-foot-5 defenders in Mohammed and Stuckey didn’t help.
“We don’t see anything like that,” Reeves said. “We haven’t seen two 6-5 kids on the court with that kind of athleticism all year so he was a little timid getting to the rim.”
Stuckey opened the second quarter with a basket and sophomore Ryan Gibbons followed with a three pointer to make it a 33-9 game. Another Gibbons three pointer with 1:06 left in the half gave the Blue Jays a 30-point lead, 47-17. They led 47-19 at the half.
“We’ve been trying to practice for this for a week but until you actually get on the court with these kids, it’s hard to practice for,” Reeves said. “I didn’t think nerves would get to us but I think they got to us a little bit. This was our first home game in a month so I think we were a little over amped. Just our decision making wasn’t there in the first quarter.”
Sophomore Tommy Pinegar hit two three pointers in the third quarter for Greenwood and Mohammed scored 15 points.
Stump, meanwhile, scored 10 in the third quarter for Golden City and added seven more in the fourth. Eagles junior Lane Dunlap scored 11 in the second half and finished with 17.
“I thought we had a really great team effort,” Taylor said. “I thought we shared the ball really well. I thought Kaden Stuckey had a really nice game in there. Ryan Gibbons came off the bench and hit some three’s. I just thought everybody did their job. Grant Harper had another nice game, Tommy had some three’s. I thought they all played a pretty good game.”
Stump and Dunlap were the only Eagles in double figures.
Stuckey and Gibbons each scored 12 points for the Blue Jays. Pinegar finished with 13. Mohammed finished with 11 rebounds.
