LUCAS — It was a signature victory for the Cubs and a wake-up call for the Cougars.
Andrew Smollen scored 14 first-quarter points and Lucas dominated from start to finish in a resounding and surprising 72-38 win over previously unbeaten Crestview on Tuesday at the Cub Cave.
“We were 12-3 going into this game but we didn’t feel like we had that résumé win,” said Smollen, who connected on four 3-pointers in the opening eight minutes. “Crestview being undefeated, we had a chip on our shoulder.
“Man, it’s just so fun to play in games like this.”
The first of Smollen’s triples with 6:44 to play in the first period gave the Cubs (13-3) a 5-0 lead. By the time he hit his fourth with 3:28 remaining in the quarter, the advantage had ballooned to 18-6.
“He’s been shooting it well,” Lucas coach Taylor Iceman said. “We’re tough to guard when he’s hitting like that. The last couple of nights he’s done that so it makes things a lot easier offensively for us.”
Smollen’s fifth triple of the first half gave the Cubs a 30-13 lead early in the second period. Crestview (14-1) cut it to 32-18 on Dylan Bruner’s offensive rebound and putback with 4:53 showing in the half, but the Cubs closed the quarter on a 9-0 run and took a 41-18 lead to the break.
“The thing that was big tonight was Smollen hitting those 3s early,” Crestview coach John Kurtz said. “You’ve got to hand it to them. They played really hard. They played harder than us and that’s why the score was like it was.
“We were worried about our energy level. Our kids don’t understand that when you are undefeated people are going to look at you and say, ‘Hey, we want to get you tonight.’ This is a hard place to play and they took it to us.”
Things didn’t get any better for the Cougars in the second half as Logan Toms picked up where Smollen left off. Toms scored 16 of his game-high 30 points after intermission.
“I knew I could get to the hole and I knew I could trust Aidan (Culler) or Smollen to hit a shot,” Toms said. “The reason we won this game is we believed and we stayed together.”
Smollen backed Toms with 20 points. Culler added 12.
“These guys got their butts kicked in football against Crestview and we’ve heard a lot about them this year,” Iceman said. “We were hungry for it and we knew they were maybe ripe for the picking a little bit.
“They’ve had a really good season. … That’s a really good team. They didn’t play great tonight but we had a lot to do with that. Our kids played really hard.”
Justice Thompson led Crestview with 10 points. Heath Cash had eight and Jarek Ringler added seven.
“For us, maybe getting knocked one time is a good thing,” Kurtz said. “We don’t want to lose like that, but this will wake kids up for practice.
“It exposed the things we need to work on.”
