MMCRU Boys Beat West Monona in Pride Scrimmage
By Brayden Dirks
On November 22nd, the MMCRU Boys Basketball team traveled to Onawa to take on the West Monona Spartans in a Pride Scrimmage. The event was held to create a service in which both teams would participate. The service was a canned food drive for families in the community that are in need of them. West Monona and MMCRU were rather evenly matched with records of 5-18 and 4-17, respectively.
This scrimmage was the Royals’ first official competition of the season, however, the results and stats do not count towards the regular season. The Royals played very well, and beat West Monona 68-56. At halftime, it did not look like that result would be the case, as the Royals were down 27-21. However, things turned around in the third quarter when MMCRU scored 30 points in that quarter. West Monona scored 19 so going into the fourth quarter it was 51-46. MMCRU was able to keep their momentum going and continued to make shots. Along with that, their late game defense was stellar and held the Spartans to only 10 points in the fourth quarter. A few free throws at the end of the game sealed the deal for the Royals and they came away with the win.
Although the individual stats do not count towards season’s totals and averages, the MMCRU stat takers kept track of points just for our boys. Sophomore classmates Kyler Bork and Mitchell Schnepf lead the way with 23 and 15 points, respectively. Junior Derek Goth had 11 points, and freshman Michael Peterson had a nice high school debut with 9 points. Sophomore Owen Schroeder had 5 points and senior Preston Astidias had 3 points. Freshman Jace Colling and junior Andrew Barinsky both had one point each.
Head coach Cam Kuchel was pleased with the result but knows there’s room to improve. “Our West Monona Pride Scrimmage was an incredible opportunity for our new look squad early in the season. It put us in a real game-like simulation where we could really evaluate what we had as a basketball squad. Our coaching staff is very pleased with our effort levels and how we performed. Need to clean up a few things, like missed bunnies and 16 missed free throws. In the end it was great to come out with a W.” The Royals will look to use this momentum heading into their regular season. The rest of the boys’ game schedule for the 2021-2022 season is listed below.
12/7/21 vs Harris-Lake Park 7:30 PM MMCRU High School
12/9/21 vs Remsen St. Mary’s 7:30 PM MMCRU High School
12/14/21 @Hinton 7:30 PM Hinton High School
12/17/21 vs Akron-Westfield 7:30 PM MMCRU Middle School
12/20/21 @Trinity Christian 7:30 PM Trinity Christian High School
1/4/22 @Harris-Lake Park 7:30 PM Harris-Lake Park Jr-Sr High School
1/7/22 vs South O’Brien 7:30 PM MMCRU High School
1/11/22 vs Trinity Christian 7:30 PM MMCRU Middle School
1/13/22 @George-Little Rock 7:30 PM George Little Rock Community School
1/14/22 @Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 7:30 PM Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn High School
1/18/22 @Akron-Westfield 7:30 PM Akron Westfield School
1/20/22 vs Kingsley-Pierson 7:30 PM MMCRU Middle School
1/24/22 vs River Valley 7:30 PM MMCRU Middle School
1/25/22 vs Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 7:30 PM MMCRU High School
1/28/22 @West Sioux 7:30 PM West Sioux High School
2/1/22 @South O’Brien 7:30 PM South O’Brien High School
2/4/22 vs Gehlen Catholic 7:30 PM MMCRU High School
2/7/22 vs GT/RA 7:30 PM MMCRU High School
2/8/22 @Unity Christian 7:30 PM Unity Christian High School
2/11/22 vs Kingsley-Pierson 7:30 PM Kingsley-Pierson High School