NORTH MANCHESTER – Manchester had no answer for Columbia City’s Mitchell Wilson Tuesday night.
Wilson scored 29 points to lead the Eagles to a 55-42 win over the Squires in a nonconference boys basketball game at Manchester High School.
“We talked about, ‘Hey, he’s gonna get some points,’” said Manchester coach Mark Underwood. “But, if we could hold him to maybe 12 to 15 and then do a job on the other guys, we’d give ourselves a good chance. But, we weren’t able to do that.”
Manchester trailed by five points early in the third quarter before cutting the Eagles’ lead to three points and prompting Columbia City coach Brett Eberly to call a timeout.
“(I said) that we needed to get locked down, that we needed to get refocused again,” said Eberly, who was a standout guard for the Squires in the mid 1990s.
The Eagles soared out of the timeout to a 21-4 run to finish the third quarter with a 48-28 lead.
“Yes, basketball is a game of runs, but you can’t allow that to happen,” Underwood said.
Wilson, who finished 7 of 12 from the floor and 13 of 16 from the free throw line, scored 14 of his points in the third.
“He’s just a load, and the thing about him is he just never quits,” Eberly said.
The Squires (11-8) didn’t quit, either, and started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run. They cut the Eagles’ lead to 11 with around 1:30 to play, but by then Columbia City was able to ride its double-digit lead safely to victory.
“(Columbia City is) a 4A school, so I’m not making any excuses, it’s just that this is a quality team that we played tonight,” Underwood said.
“So hopefully we can take some things from this game, learn from them, apply them to our next three games as we finish the season and head into the sectional.”
Manchester trailed 8-6 after the first quarter, and scored two quick buckets at the end of the second quarter to head into the break down 22-17.
Wilson surpassed 1,000 points in January. As a junior, he’ll have the rest of this season and all of next season to break Columbia City’s all-time scoring record, which is held by Bill Schwarz with 1,646 points.
Parrett led Manchester with 12 points. The Squires will play Friday at Maconaquah in a Three Rivers Conference matchup.
COLUMBIA CITY 55,
MANCHESTER 42
CC 8 14 26 7 – 55
M 6 11 11 14 – 42
Columbia City – Mason Baker 1-1 0-0 3, TJ Bedwell 4-8 0-0 11, Cam Scott 1-3 0-0 3, Nick Hull 0-0 0-0 0, Mitchell Wilson 7-12 13-16 29, Max Bedwell 0-0 2-2 2, Bryce Taylor 1-4 0-0 3, Brooks Longebaugh 0-0 0-0 0, Gregory Bolt 2-3 0-0 4, Totals 16-31 15-18 55.
Manchester – Logan Parrett 3-5 1-1 7, Brayden Casper 4-9 4-4 12, Kam Lester 2-4 1-2 5, Weston Hamby 2-7 3-4 7, Thane Creager 2-3 0-0 5, Ridge Caleb Stout 2-4 0-0 4, Max Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Mark Underwood 0-0 0-0 0, Kreeden Krull 1-1 0-0 2, Konrad Borgmann 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 16-33 9-12 42.
Three-pointers – Columbia City 8 (T. Bedwell 3, Wilson 2, Scott 1, Baker 1, Taylor 1), Manchester 1 (Creager 1); Rebounding – Columbia City 14, Manchester 17; Turnovers – Columbia City 7, Manchester 16; Fouls – Columbia City 9, Manchester 14; Fouled out – none; Records: Columbia City 7-12, Manchester 11-8
