By SCOTT BORKGREN
NEELYVILLE -- In a bold halftime move, Puxico coach Nathan Martin switched to a defense the Indians have never run.
The change worked perfectly. The Indians held Neelyville to four second-half field goals and ran away for a 66-46 win Thursday.
In a back-and-forth first half, Puxico ran its usual 2-3 zone. Neelyville was in a zone as well and both offenses found success. Puxico from the outside, Neelyville from the inside.
Puxico (8-7) had seven 3-pointers in the first half. Two each by Levi Woods and Dalton King and three from Braiden Jones.
Neelyville (11-4) fed forwards Curtis Fowler and Marquise West. West had six points in the first quarter and Fowler had 10 in the second, giving the duo 16 of Neelyville's 36 first-half points.
"He is very athletic and can play around the rim," Martin said of Fowler. "We forced them to make outside shots and they couldn't. We played well, the defense was pretty good in the second half and I'm pleased."
Neelyville was without its top outside shooter in Wyatt Moon, so Martin switched to a 2-1-2 zone, which Puxico has not run in a game this season, moving the middle defender higher in the post to try and force Neelyville to shoot from outside.
"Defensively they did a great job," Neelyville coach Patrick Morton said. "Normally we see a lot of man, presses. It is not often they bring that middle guy up. It gave us some trouble. Tonight we were trying to score from the inside out and he's got some good post guys, some good defenders down there that gave us some fits. My hat is off to them. I just think Puxico outplayed us tonight."
Fowler had three points in the second half and West was scoreless. Fowler still led the team in scoring with 13 total. Neelyville made one 3-pointer in the game, by Wyatt Russom in the second quarter.
Eli Crossen added 12 points, seven of them in the first quarter, and Jemaane Williams had 10, eight in the first half.
"It worked pretty well tonight. We will look to run it more often against certain teams that have a good inside presence," Martin said.
The Tigers had 10 total points in the second half.
"We were struggling to score. We had a lot of looks at the rim that just didn't go in. I think some of it had to do with our legs. We looked kinda tired there. Puxico gets up and down the floor. They like to play fast and I think they out-ran us," Morton said.
The Indians, who have won four straight and 6 of 8, were up by one at halftime, then opened the third with a 9-2 run. Woods sank a 3 with 32 seconds left to give the Indians the first double-digit lead of the game.
With 15 seconds left after a Neelyville free throw, Martin called out a play for the last shot as Woods brought it up the floor. He passed right, went left, picked up a backside screen, caught a skip pass and rattled in an open 3 just before the buzzer.
It was the exclamation point at the end of a dominant quarter where the Indians outscored Neelyville 19-5.
Puxico led by as much as 22 in the fourth quarter after Dalton King got a steal and a layin with under two minutes left.
Woods has been the leading scorer for Puxico all season and, consequently, a focal point for defenses. He recently scored 50 points in a game, but against Neelyville, Puxico had a balanced attack with four players in double figures.
It was Jones, with five 3-pointers, who led the team in scoring. Woods had 16 after making four 3s. Brady Hart added 14 and King got 12.
"Our distribution is more spread out than it has been to start the year, and that takes a load off of our guys, like Levi and Dalton especially. You got Braiden, Brady, Matt (Bollinger) and Brent Geohagen has been playing well recently for us, too," said Martin, who added that teams have not yet adjusted to the more balanced offense. "Obviously Levi is the guy and Dalton is 1A, 1B. Dalton is very capable. I'm liking what I'm seeing and if (teams) do adjust they are just going to have to play us straight up."
The win puts Puxico above .500 for the first time since the beginning of the 2016-17 season when Puxico started 2-0 but then lost six straight and finished 9-14. It was a similar story in Martin's first season as coach in 2015-16. Puxico started 3-2, then lost six straight and finished 7-16.