LEROY — Defensive pressure and offensive rebounds helped propel the visiting Manton boys to a 62-28 victory over Pine River in Highland Conference play Friday.
Neither team could get much into a scoring flow in the early going but Manton coach Ryan Hiller called for a full-court press late in the opening quarter and the pressure yielded dividends as the Rangers outscored Pine River 22-11 over the next 10 minutes to take a 30-15 lead into the locker room at intermission.
The Rangers, continuing to press and control the boards, pushed the lead to 51-19 by the end of the third quarter.
“The press is what we’ve gone to this year because it’s been effective for us,” Hiller said after Manton (8-7, 6-4) won for the sixth time in the past eight games.
“We had a lot of steals and tips tonight. Pine River wouldn’t allow us to get much penetration inside so we had to take a lot of 3-point shots. We missed a lot of those but we were able to get offensive rebounds, especially in the second quarter, and that helped us.”
Pine River coach Brian Goodenow acknowledged that Manton’s pressure disrupted the Bucks offensively and there were also several missed shots which hurt, particularly in the first quarter.
“We created some open looks but just couldn’t make a shot at the start and that was a carryover from our last game (a 43-42 win at Evart),” Goodenow said.
“Manton came after us with their pressure and we didn’t handle it well. We got beat in every facet of the game tonight. We need to find more consistency.”
Pine River (7-6, 4-5), which had won four of its previous five games, slipped behind Manton in the Highland Conference standings with the loss.
A tip-in by Luke Puffer late in the opening quarter gave Manton a 10-4 lead and ignited the game-turning run.
A jumper from Puffer, a driving layup from Noah Morrow, and a baseline 3-pointer from Nolan Moffit gave the Rangers a 17-6 lead three minutes into the second quarter.
Manton made seven 3’s in all from six different players. Senior forward Jeremiah Vlaeminck, who provided strong minutes off the bench, canned a pair of triples in the fourth quarter.
Hiller was pleased with the ball distribution and that everyone played and everyone scored. He commended the hustling play of Vlaeminck and Logan Patrick coming off the bench.
Johnathen Traxler tallied 14 to pace the Rangers’ balanced scoring ledger. Moffit (12) was also in double figures while Puffer and Morrow each scored seven and Vlaeminck hit for six.
Tim Gum paced the Bucks with six points, draining a pair of 3’s in the final quarter. Isaiah Dennis, Austin Dean and Evan Esiline each scored four. Goodenow commanded the defensive energy of DJ Langworthy off the bench.
Pine River is at McBain on Tuesday. Manton travels to Roscommon on Thursday.
