Panthers cruise to 74-48 win over Buffaloes

Being down a man didn't deter the Concordia Panthers.
With senior Corben Monzon, the second leading scorer last season, out after suffering an ankle injury in a loss to Beloit last Friday night, nine different players scored, including three in double figures, as the Panthers rolled to a 74-48 victory over Republic County Tuesday night in the Concordia Junior-Senior High School gymnasium.
Senior Dyelan Reed led the scoring barrage for Concordia with 31 points. He was 11 of 16 from the field, and made six of eight three-point attempts. He also grabbed seven rebounds.
Sophomore Wyatt Trost tossed in a career high 17 points on 8 of 14 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds.
Chas Carlgren, a sophomore finished with 11 points and 15 rebounds as the Panthers picked up their first win of  the season.
“I thought we played very well. I thought we needed to do defensively to not let them get hot. The (Clint) Callaway kid is a great shooter. (Ethan) Nutsch can score pretty well. The (Hunter) Hartner kid is a very capable scorer. So I was more impressed with our defense. Holding them to 10 points at half was big for us,” Concordia coach Michael Roe said, “And then we did what we needed to do on offense. We shot the ball really well. Without Corben the offense kind of runs through Dyelan and Wyatt, and they performed very well, and Chas stepped up and rebounded well and finished well.”
Concordia scored the first four points of the game, and would never trail.
Trost, Reed and Carlgren all connected on threes as the Panthers built a 15-7 advantage.
A free throw by Nutsch, who paced Republic County with 23 points, made it a 15-8 game with 2:08 remaining in the first quarter.
The Buffaloes would not score again until the 2:52 mark of the second period.
Two free throws by Jacob Rosenbaum and a three by Reed gave Concordia a 20-8 cushion.
Reed and Trost combined for the first eight points of the second quarter, and the Panthers led 28-8.
A basket by Nutsch more than five minutes into the period ended the lengthy scoring drought for the Buffaloes and made it 28-10.
Four straight points by Carlgren and a three by Reed gave Concordia a 35-10 halftime advantage.
Baskets by Nutsch and Callaway in the first 54 seconds of the second half cut the Panther led to 21 points, 35-14.
Reed responded with a three-point shot and a bucket inside to make it 40-14.
It was a 42-17 game when Trost scored on a drive and Reed connected on another three to give Concordia its biggest lead of the game, 47-17.
Roe was able to go to his bench early.
All 11 Panthers in uniform played in the game.
Republic County outscored Concordia 8-4 over the final 2:32 of the third quarter to make it 51-25.
The Buffaloes would toss in 38 points in the second half.
“I think if we look at it on film it is going to be some of our JV guys having turnovers,” Roe said, “Our bench is a lot of sophomores. Tonight we had seven sophomores sitting on the bench, and all of them played their maximum amount of quarters. And what we saw were a lot of turnovers, some defensive breakdowns that led to more points for Republic County. I had a feeling it might happen, but we have to see where we are at with those guys and it was a good situation for them to be in, and hopefully we can learn from it and play better when we are in the same situation.”
Republic County opened the fourth period with an 8-2 spurt to close the gap to 53-33.
The Buffaloes would get no closer.
“Tonight we saw the ball go through the hoop very easily for us. Hopefully we can sustain that and keep scoring the basketball,” Roe said.
Callaway scored 11 points for Republic County.
The Panthers travel to Lindsborg to take on Smoky Valley in the first road game of the season on Friday night.

REPUBLIC COUNTY (48)
Callaway 4-1-2 11, Fischer 0-0-3 0, Dahl 1-0-1 2, Parde 2-0-4 2, Nutsch 7-9-2 23, Hartner 1-4-3 6, Stindt 0-0-1 0, Aurand 1-0-1 2. Totals: 16-14-17 48.
CONCORDIA (74)
Williams 1-0-2 3, Vignery 1-0-0 3, Trost 8-0-4 17, Bombardier 0-0-1 0, Owen 1-0-3 2, Carlgren 5-0-3 11, Reed 11-3-0 31, Rosenbaum 1-2-2 4, Thomas 0-1-0 1, Parker 1-0-4 2. Totals: 29-6-19 74.