Mason, East pound Parker
JANESVILLE — Janesville Parker coach Ryan Masterson wasn’t sure if his players were intimidated or simply tentative, but Madison East’s Marquis Mason ran wild at the opening tip-off and didn’t stop until he had put the Purgolders comfortably ahead at the half.
While Mason was scoring 19 first-half points, East held the Vikings to just 20 at the break and rolled to a 74-51 victory in Big Eight boys basketball here Friday night.
The first half ended with a slam dunk by East’s Stafford Park off a Parker turnover to put the exclamation point on a dominating display by the Pur golders (10-2, 8-2), who gained their ninth straight win and stayed a half-game behind first-place Madison Memorial in the conference race.
Masterson said he wasn’t as concerned about Mason’s scoring as he was with the Parker defense.
“We knew we’d have our hands full with Mason, but we have to learn to get more physical,” said Masterson, whose team fell to 0-9 in the Big Eight and 0-11 overall. “At the beginning of the game, we let them take it to us. We were giving them too much credit and allowed them to penetrate.”
Masterson said that, as good as Mason is, he benefited from his teammates’ penetration that allowed the 6-4 junior to camp out underneath.
Mason led a dominating East effort inside, scoring 10 of his game-high 30 points off offensive rebounds.
Parker came out more competitive in the third quarter, but East’s momentum could not be overcome. Mason cooled off a bit, but 6-7 senior James Bartelt and Park picked things up for the Purgolders.
“We knew we would have to play a perfect game to compete, and we didn’t do that,” Masterson said. “We have stretches during the game when we can keep up with them, and we had those stretches the first time we played them, but we are unable to maintain that level of play.”
Tyler Teubert led Parker with 13 points. Jordan Thompson was the only other Viking in double figures with 10.
East coach Rich Cleveland said his team has four tough games ahead all on the road—Memorial, Verona, Craig and Beloit.
“If we won all those games, that would be something else,” Cleveland said. “If we won two, it wouldn’t surprise me, if we win three, it would be great.”
Parker faces another tough test tonight at 7:30 when the Vikings host Beloit, a 67-44 winner over Janesville Craig on Friday at Barkin Arena.
EAST 74, PARKER 51
East (74)—Hiliard IV, 3-1-7; Park, 4-1-10; Bacallao, 3-3-9; Bartelt, 3-3-9; Mason, 12-6-30; Terry, 3-1-7; Galligan, 1—0-2. Totals: 29-15-74.
Parker (51)—Thompson, 4-0-10; Teubert, 5-3-13; Husen, 1-1-4; J. Knutson, 1-2-4. C. Knutson, 3-2-9; Anderson, 1-0-2; Simonson, 2-2-6; Lehr, 1-0-2; Moe, 0-1-1. Totals: 18-11-51.
Madison East 16 21 19 18—74
Janesville Parker 7 13 9 22—51
Three-point goals—East 1 (Park), Parker 4 (Thompson 2, Husen, C. Knutson). Free throws missed—East 12, Parker 9. Total fouls—East 16, Parker 21. Fouled out—Fiedler.
Sophomores—Parker 37, East 35. Parker leading scorers: Charlie Palan 13, Austin Lloyd 9.
Jan 30, 2009 at 6:56 a.m.
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Cutting these seniors was pure politics, it just boils down to what side of the fence you are on. If your son was cut your on one side. If you have a freshman or sophomore playing because of these cuts you would be on the other. These seniors earned the right to play this year and Masterson took it away from them. Period.
Jan 28, 2009 at 7:25 p.m.
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Masterson is behind the 8 ball because of the previous coaching at the freshman and sophomore levels. Masterson is doing a great job trying to rebuild this program. Making changes to the coaching staff at the freshman level was a great start, but needs to continue to make changes at the sophomore level. If one were to keep the politics out of the program, more games could be won.
Jan 27, 2009 at 9:09 p.m.
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It is a false premise also to think these boys wouldnt have been able to help the team. I try hard to understand as to why these boys were cut and not allowed to stay on the team. They had shown their metal and won there positions for three years summers included. To cut senior leadership with talent that was better than the current talent was most definitely putting this current Parker team directly behind the 8-ball.
Jan 27, 2009 at 9 a.m.
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While I feel for the three boys who were cut, this did not put the team behind the 8 ball. The team would have been bad with or without them. They were bad last year with five Senior starters and these three seeing very limited time. THis does not mean that the kids should not have been kept but cutting them is not the reason Parker is winless
The Big 8 is a very difficult conference for basketball and this year has a number of teams that could go deep in the tournament. An argument can be made that by playing in the program for three years, these kids deserved to be on the team their Senior year but to any way imply that they would have made a major difference in the teams ability to be competitive in the conference is to promote a false premise
Jan 25, 2009 at 1:17 p.m.
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It's a good question then. It'd be interesting to know what these players did or did not do to find themselves off of the team.
Jan 24, 2009 at 8:30 p.m.
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They performed better than all the rest of the players during the summer season and one of them played on a AAU travel team. I watched every summer game. Believe me I am not speculating. Why should players who were underclassmen who didnt start or even show up during the summer scheduled games be given the nod over boys who earned their chance and were in their senior season. Its a question that never was answered.
Jan 24, 2009 at 7:28 p.m.
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I'm not sure of whom you are speaking, but if the returning seniors weren't putting forth the effort Coach Masterson was seeking, why should they be guaranteed a spot? I'd venture to guess that Coach Masterson wouldn't have cut good team players, especially returning seniors. We shouldn't speculate negatively on such things if we don't know all the details.
I think Coach Masterson and his staff are doing an admirable job this season, despite the poor record.
Jan 24, 2009 at 2:56 p.m.
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At the start of the Parkers Boys season MR Masterson cut 3 seniors that were varsity they were dedicated boys leading the team through out the summer in rebounding scoring and defense. Masterson chose to put this current team behind the 8 ball by cutting these seniors. And who cuts returning varsity seniors?
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