Glendale juniors Monty Johal and Jordan Walton continue to score at record-setting paces.
Glendale junior Monty Johal (right) low fives teammate Von Oeser (left) before Glendale’s 2015-2016 season-opening home win over Carnahan.
Johal scored his sophomore average of 25 points, and Walton scored 24 in Glendale’s 93-74 win over Carnahan of St. Louis in Friday night’s season-opening game at Falcon Court.
“We thought we had a pretty rough night overall and then we just look at the scoreboard and we have 90 points. It’s a weird feeling, but that just gives me hope,” Johal said.
Despite the high score, the game featured some “first game” moments.
“It was good. The first game was early, we got the jitters out,” Johal said. “It was real rough at first, but we just got a good feel for each other.”
Glendale (1-0) coach Brian McTague implemented a new defensive system before the start of the season. At 6-foot-3, Johal is one of Glendale’s two tallest players, but Johal is a guard. McTague wants to take advantage of speed and lateral quickness to cut into opposing passing lanes to create points in transition.
“The whole idea of how we’re trying to play this year is to force the issue on both ends of the floor,” McTague said.
Walton likes the uptempo style of play.
“We like it because it allows us to play faster. We still need to work on playing faster and not fouling and getting hands on people,” Walton said. “Our chaoticness speeds everyone else up, and I feel like we’re better at playing fast than other kids, because we can pull up for three in transition and we have a great finisher in Monty.”
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Carnahan tried to use its size advantage, and it spots it worked. Tyrone Wright, a 6-foot-5 forward, led the Cougars with 22 points. Wright looked impressive on the offensive glass.
“We had spurts where we really got our hands on a lot of stuff, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do,” McTague said. “Obviously, the boards killed us, but rebounding is not going to be our strong suit. Obviously, we’ve got to do better than we did tonight.”
Johal and Walton are Glendale’s leading men, but McTague expects a group of two seniors and a flock of juniors to gain confidence as the season goes along.
“The big thing is we have guys now that can complement them and if guys key on them we’ve got shooters all around them. Monty and Jordan have both done a good job of continuing to improve their games. They understand the big picture,” McTague said.
One of those players in Jaxon Davis, who scored 10 points in the first quarter and finished with 17 points. Davis hit four 3-pointers.
“(Davis) can shoot with the best of them, and when he’s on it makes us dangerous,” McTague said.
Glendale won’t play again for more than two weeks. In fact, it won’t play again in the month of November. The Falcons host Rogersville on Monday, Dec. 5, at Falcon Court at 7:30 p.m.
Between now and then, Glendale plans to work on positioning on defense and attacking more on the offensive end.
“Once we get our chemistry down, we’re going to be really dangerous offensively,” Walton said.
Glendale 93, Carnahan (St. Louis) 74
Carnahan 19-13-19-23—74
Glendale 25-24-25-19—93
Individual scoring
Carnahan—Tyrone Wright 22, Cortez Williams 15, Aaron Brookins 13, Zavier Menears 9, Sylvester Clay 6, Darrion Gibson 3, Michael Cooper 3, Marius Molton 3.
Glendale—Monty Johal 25, Jordan Walton 24, Jaxon Davis 17, Winston Quinn 9, Garrett Freeman 6, Dylan Metevier 6, Von Oeser 3, Josh Call 2, Justin Gilpin 1.
