The Monmouth Roseville Titans boys basketball team was on the road on Friday night, taking on the Knoxville Blue Bullets in a non-conference meeting. The Titans were looking to rebound from a tough loss to conference rival Riverdale on Tuesday, and Monmouth-Roseville would do just that, taking down the Blue Bullets in convincing 61-22 fashion. The opening minutes of the first quarter were a defensive struggle, before the first 5 points of the game all came from Titans senior Jake Steele in the first 2 minutes. Aidan Almaguer would score on a mid range jumper to add another basket on to Monmouth-Roseville’s opening 7-0 run, forcing Knoxville to burn their first timeout. The Blue Bullets would break up this run with their first points coming from senior Will Shreeves to put Knoxville on the board. Monmouth-Roseville would respond to this score from Knoville with 6 points of their own, coming on short range shots from Almaguer, Darrion Smith, and Payton Thompson. The Titans final possession of the quarter would end in a missed three to finish the quarter with a 13-2 lead for M-R.After a defensive battle in the first quarter, the opening of the second quarter would follow much of the same pace. The Blue Bullets would score the first basket of the quarter, but that score would be matched with a layup from Cee Sacromo to give the Titans a 15-4 lead. Another good Titans run, featuring free throws fromPayton Thompson and a made basket from Ty Corsaro would push the Titans to their biggest lead of the night at 22-6, leading to the second Blue Bullets timeout of the game. To close out the first half of play, Jake Steele poured in 5 more points while Jacob Morris of Knoxville would knock down a three in the final seconds of the quarter to bring the score to 27-9 in favor of the Titans at the break.Feeding off the momentum from their dominant first half, the Titans would open up the second half with free throws from Darrion Smith and a three ball from Nico Avendano to stretch the M-R lead into the 20s. Out of Knoxville’s third timeout of the game, Payton Thompson and Ethan Clark would knock down shots to make the Titans lead 43-11 heading into the final minutes of the third quarter. Dueling threes from Knoxville and Monmouth-Roseville’s Maddox Clark, along with another score from sophomore Cee Sarcomo would wrap up the third quarter with a 52-14 lead for the Titans. A running clock in the fourth quarter would quickly wrap up the commanding Titans win. Titans scorers during the fourth quarter would be junior Dame Thioubou, Cee Sarcomo, and Ethan Clark.In the final stat book for the Titans, Cee Sarcomo and Jake Steele led the way scoring with 10 points a piece, Payton Thompson and Aidan Almaguer added in 8 points each while Darrion Smith had 6. The win for Monmouth-Roseville improves their record to 6-2. The Titans will look to keep improving on their record next week, when they take on West Hancock on the road on Tuesday, December 12th.
