Free State boys cruise past Seaman

Box score

Topeka Seaman (48)

Clancy 0-2 0-0 0, Miller 5-9 0-0 11, Bauer 2-4 0-0 4, Morgart 7-8 1-3 15, Poort 2-7 0-0 4, Hazim 1-4 1-5 3, Frye 2-3 1-2 5, Fehr 2-3 1-2 5, Moylan 0-1 0-0 0, Mumford 1-1 1-2 0, Totals 21-41 4-14 48.

Free State (71)

Winslow 4-5 2-2 10, Moreano 6-9 0-0 13, Loneker 2-4 2-5 6, Caro 1-2 0-0 2, Lane 3-8 0-0 6, Narcomey 3-5 1-1 8, Hack 2-6 0-0 4, Garber 3-3 1-1 8, McKinney 0-0 0-0 0, Anavberokhai 4-11 0-0 9, Cordes 1-5 1-1 3, Keating 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 30-60 7-10 71.

Topeka Seaman 6 14 13 15 — 48

Free State 17 18 21 15 — 71

Three-point goals: Topeka Seaman 2-8 (Miller 1, Fehr 1), Free State 4-15 (Moreano 1, Narcomey 1, Garber 1, Anavberokhai 1). Turnovers: Topeka Seaman 17, Free State 10. Total Fouls: Topeka Seaman 14 (fouled out: Fehr), Free State 18.

Forgive the Free State High boys basketball players if they didn’t realize pregame warmups were over before the start of their game against visiting Topeka Seaman.

The Firebirds just continued their layup drill through the first quarter and actually throughout the game.

With 24 of its 30 baskets coming on drives to the basket, Free State coasted to a 71-48 victory to improve to 2-0.

Each of Free State’s first nine baskets was a layup, including eight in the first quarter by six players. In fact, 13 of its 15 first-half baskets were strong attacks on the goal.

The Firebirds moved the ball well offensively and forced 17 Seaman turnovers defensively in a team effort, which included 11 players scoring on the night.

“We have tried to impress on our guys that we would like to shoot more layups, attack the basket and get threes the more conventional way because I think that is more the strength of our team,” Free State coach Chuck Law said.

While the Free State defense pressured Seaman’s ball-handlers, the Firebirds did allow the Vikings to hit 21 of 41 field-goal attempts. Seaman’s Reid Morgart scored most of his game-high 15 points in the paint, while Joe Miller scored from inside and out en route to 11 points.

“I thought our defense was OK,” Law said. “It is going to have to get a lot better for what we have coming up the rest of the week.”

Cole Moreano, who led Free State with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, liked the hustle of his team’s defense, but was not satisfied with the final result.

“Our press is more aggressive this year, and we can get easy layups, and that is what we wanted to do,” he said. “Our goal is to try to keep teams below 50 points. It was pretty close. It was not our best effort, but it was OK.”

Blake Winslow was the only other Firebird in double figures with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting as Free State connected on 30 of 60 shots and seven of 10 free throws.

“We had a game under our belt, and we were able to do some things while they were trying to figure things out,” Law said about Seaman playing its first game.