WAYNESVILLE — Todd Cook admitted to feeling nervous before stepping onto his home court Friday night as head coach of the Waynesville boys basketball team for the first time.
The Spartans made sure the nerves didn’t last very long.
Waynesville raced to a 20-9 lead in the first quarter and kept the margin at double digits the rest of the game while cruising to a 65-43 win over Carlisle.
The Spartans (1-1) made 44 percent of their shots from the field, including 9-of-22 from 3-point range, to win their Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division opener.
“I’m relieved,” Cook said. “We thought that if we attacked them on the inside, we could either draw fouls or kick the ball out for open 3s. The team executed the game plan and we hit our shots.”
Stephen Jeffries and Luke Creditt did most of the damage, combining for 36 points and sinking six 3-pointers.
“Our first option was to pound it inside, but Carlisle was leaving us open and the shots were falling,” Jeffries, who led all scorers with 19 points, said. “We played our hearts out tonight and we deserved to win.”
Carlisle (1-2, 1-1 SWBL Buckeye) got in early foul trouble as starters Tyler Dean and Adam Emrick both picked up three fouls in the first half.
The Indians managed to cut the lead to 11 early in the third quarter, but the Spartans finished the period on an 18-2 run to end the suspense.
“We had a couple of possessions there where we could have cut it to single digits and I think that would have been a huge boost psychologically had we been able to do that,” Carlisle coach Jeff Waugh said. “But we missed a couple shots, made some turnovers and Waynesville pushed the lead back to 15 and that was the ballgame.
“Waynesville played a good game tonight. They did what they wanted to do and we didn’t have an answer.”
Josh Koogle scored 17 points to pace Carlisle, with 11 of those coming in the second half. The Indians shot 38 percent from the field (14-of-37) and turned the ball over 22 times.
Waynesville junior Victor Boggs came off the bench to score eight points and grab nine rebounds.