CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- The Malden Green Wave boys basketball team put the entire Bootheel Conference on notice Tuesday night.
Malden outscored defending champion Caruthersville in each of the final three quarters to secure a 62-54 road victory.
"Caruthersville had some uncharacteristic turnovers in the second half," Malden coach Andrew Halford said. "We got out in the passing lanes and got a couple turnovers in the third and fourth quarters and got some easy layups. We didn't really expect to get those, but the ones we get we will take."
Caruthersville, which was playing its first game since Dec. 19, kept things close from start to finish. The Tigers built its largest lead of the night at 21-16 with 6:12 left in the second quarter. Malden scored seven straight points to take its largest lead at 41-32 with four minutes left in the third period.
"Any kind of lead in a game like this is big," Halford said. "You just have to find a way to hang onto it and we were able to do that down the stretch tonight."
Caruthersville (4-4, 1-1 Bootheel) trimmed its nine-point deficit to 51-50 with 3:55 remaining. Malden followed with three consecutive field goals to pad its lead to seven with 2:05 left and led by at least five points the rest of the way.
"Malden made some big shots," Caruthersville coach Lamonte Bell said. "I told my guys, 'their best shooter took smarter shots than our best shooter.' They executed their offense and made big shots and we came down and forced some shots and missed too many free throws late in the game. But overall I'm not disappointed with our play because we didn't play that bad after being off for the last 2 1/2 weeks and having to come back and face a Malden team that has been playing really well."
Malden (10-2, 2-0) was confronted with foul trouble for most of the second half but never had a player foul out. Senior forward Chience Booker remained on the bench for most of the third quarter after picking up his third foul with less than a minute left in the second quarter. Senior center Donterrian Triplett sat after picking up his third foul with 2:08 left in the third period and senior forward Broddric Annesser was substituted for after being whistled for his fourth foul with 5:58 left in regulation.
"The guys that came in off the bench gave us some good minutes," Halford said. "Dylan Dearman, who hasn't played a great deal this season, is a big body. He came in and gave us some great minutes inside and occupied space on the block to help us get rebounds."
The Green Wave continued to display balanced scoring against Caruthersville. All four Malden players that finished in double digits scored at least one field goal in every quarter.
Senior guard Dushawn Butler recorded a team-high 21 points on a pair of 3-pointers. Annesser added 13 points and Booker contributed a dozen points with three 3s.
Triplett also finished in double digits for the Green Wave. He tallied 10 points on four 2-pointers and two made free throws.
"We've got to keep having that balance," Halford said. "That makes us dangerous on the offensive end. If we have just one guy scoring it's tough for us to keep it going for an entire game. If we can spread the scoring out hopefully we will continue to be a dangerous team down the stretch."
Tallon Fonda paced Caruthersville with 18 points. G.T. Hays added 12 while Charles Golliday chipped in 10 points.
"When we got into our offensive sets we got good looks and made points," Bell said. "But then we just threw it around and allowed Malden to get defensive stops and make a couple of good runs in the second half."