Drummond boys move back atop D13C standings after beating Granite

DRUMMOND – The Trojans moved within one game of clinching the District 13C regular season title Friday night, defeating county-rival Granite 76-29.

The win improves Drummond to 8-1 in district play, one game ahead of Lincoln that lost at Seeley Swan 49-42. The locals must now win at Victor Saturday night to clinch the title and the all-important first-round bye in the D13C bracket Thursday in Frenchtown. Regardless, both they and their Lady Trojan counterparts will not have to visit the gym until Friday in the second round.

As the game opened, the 0-8 Prospectors looked like they were going to give the Trojans a game. With some smart shooting and defense Granite trailed just 12-8 at the end of the first quarter. But when the Senior Night jitters wore off and Drummond got down to business, the hosts poured in 32 points in the second against Granite’s nine, leading 44-17 at intermission.

“Yeah we did,” said DHS Boys Head Coach Levi Parsons, addressing a question about his team coming out flat in the opening period. “Being Senior Night I think they were just too excited to play. They had to get their basketball game faces on and they eventually did.”

The Trojans kept up the pressure in the second half, outscoring the visiting Prospectors 32-9.

Drummond’s Brody Rasor, who was one of five seniors playing his final home game as a Trojan, scored a game-high 22 to go along with 11 steals and five assists. Another senior, Scott Parke, scored 15. The other Drummond senior scorers included Devlin Coleman with two, Aidan McNally with five, and Trey Phillips with five.

Jake Dauenhauer was the only double-figure scorer for the Prospectors with 17, which included four three-pointers.

Granite will host Lincoln Saturday for their Senior Night festivities, while Drummond heads to Victor to close out the regular season.

In looking ahead to the that game, the Trojans’ Parsons noted what his team had to do in the game against the Pirates and get ready for the postseason.

“Execution. Limit our turnovers, shoot the basketball, execute our defense, and play with a chip on our shoulder,” observed Parsons. “We need to dominate everyone that comes in front of us no matter how good or bad they are.”

SCORING

Granite – 8/9/5/4 – 29

Drummond – 12/32/17/15 – 76

Granite – Dauenhauer 17, Smith 1, Puig 3, Lee 5, Lattis 1, Barkell 2

Drummond – Rasor 22, Parke 15, Coleman 2, James 6, Bradshaw 3, Graveley 2, Suthers 2, Phillips 5, McNally 5, Loessberg 2, Goettle 3, Dunkerson 9