Story by Kadin Rogers
The Monmouth-Roseville Titans basketball team got back into action at the Orion 10 & 32 Tip-Off classic last night after a day break for Thanksgiving. Fresh off turkey day, the Titans took on the Ridgewood Spartans in game 3 and pulled their first win of the season in dominant 63-37 fashion.
Andy Myers and Andrew Way would open the scoring early for Monmouth-Roseville giving the Titans the first lead of the game. An Andy Myers put back and Ethan Clark three along with several early Ridgewood turnovers propelled M-R to a 9-4 lead midway through the opening quarter. Afterwards the Spartans would rattle off 6 straight to take the lead but a fast break layup from Myers gave the 11-10 lead to the Titans at the end of one. Early in the second it would be Clark coming out hot with a fire as he drained two threes to up the lead to 17-10, later in the quarter junior Nick Huston and Myers would help bump the lead back up to 23-16, before a Clay Casteel three put the Titans up double digits with a 28-16 lead at the halftime break.
A quick 9-0 run for Monmouth-Roseville would soar the Titans to their largest lead all season at 37-16. Overall, the Titans had their most dominate quarter of the season in the 3rd, powered by 11 points from Ethan Clark, while Landyn Angelo and Elijah Noel scored their first buckets of the season. To wrap up the period it would be Cee Sarcomo scoring before the buzzer to put the Titans up to a convincing 52-29 lead. The fourth quarter for Monmouth-Roseville would keep much of the same pace, seeing the Titans preserve their big lead. Ivan Godina was the instant offense off the bench for M-R, scoring 4 points in the fourth as the Titans cruised on to their first win of 2024.
In the stat book for Monmouth-Roseville, Ethan Clark had another productive day from beyond the arc scoring 22 points, 18 of those from 3-point land. Elsewhere Andy Myers added in 15 while Cee Sarcomo was steady with 9 points. After upgrading their record to 1-2, the Titans will finish out play in the Orion Tip-Off Classic tomorrow evening at 5:30 against Rock Island Alleman.
For the replay of the WMOI radio broadcast of the game, go to the SPORTS PODCAST section.
