By By JEFF FISHER / Vigilant/Argus
CASSOPOLIS - A season where wins have been hard to come by for the Edwardsburg boys' basketball team continued Friday night against a surging Ranger team that lit it up from all parts of the floor.
Cass coach Josh Hood's Rangers forced 10 first half turnovers with pressure defense that led to a commanding 22-6 lead after the opening quarter.
And, they never looked back in defeating their neighborhood rival 81-50 before a near capacity crowd for homecoming.
The Rangers (11-7, 7-6 Lakeland), jumped out to a to an early 13-2 first quarter lead and led 22-6 after one quarter of play. Seven different players scored for Cass in the first quarter.
The Eddies (6-12, 2-11 Lakeland), quickly regrouped and went on a 12-2 run in the second quarter to narrow the Ranger lead to 12 points (24-12), but Cass answered with their own 6-0 run to jump out to a 34-16 lead and went into the locker room up 37-22.
Adam Hancock of the Eddies had six second quarter points.
The Rangers completely shut down the Eddies inside game and forced them to play from the outside.
Cass' Dan Stanage's back-to-back-buckets gave the hosts a 41-22 lead in the third quarter, which swelled to 52-33 advantage at the end of the third quarter.
Cass outscored the Eddies 15-11 in the third frame
The Rangers' Lonnie William's consecutive 3-pointers upped the Cass lead to 60-37 with 3:25 to play in the fourth quarter and a Neal Bullocks offensive rebound and put back all but sealed the Eddies fate.
Bullocks scored 16 points and grabbed eight boards for the Rangers. Will Loux chipped in 11 points along with nine rebounds and John Young netted 15 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Paul Curtis dished out seven assists.
Hancock and David Daniels scored 10 points each for the Eddies. Zac Boellenbacher netted eight points and the Eddies leading scorer Tony Hayes, who was averaging 15.6 points per game, was held to only seven points.
Cassopolis was 31-of-57 from the field and 15-of-18 from the charity stripe.
It was the Rangers second win of the season over Edwardsburg. The Rangers won earlier 68-64 in overtime.
The Rangers, winners of their last five out of six games now host Buchanan Friday night, the last home game before the districts. The Eddies travel to Berrien Spring to round out the regular season.
The Ranger junior varsity also defeated the Eddies 67-43 in the game played earlier.
EDWARDSBURG 50
Alex Antoniu 0 0-0 0, David Daniels 3 4-4 10, Tony Hayes 2 3-4 7, Pat Huggett 0 0-0 0, Ted Pietrzak1 0-0 2, Adam Hancock 4 2-4 10, Zac Boellenbacher 3 2-4 8, Nate Harness 2 0-0 4, Jake Roberts 1 1-2 3, Kevin Stack 3 0-0 6. Totals: 19 12-18 50
CASSOPOLIS 81
Neal Bullocks 8 0-0 16, Dan Stanage 4 4-4 12, Will Loux 3 5-6 11, Paul Curtis 2 0-0 4, John Young 7 1-2 15, Rodney Lewis 3 2-4 8, Lonnie Williams 3 0-0 8, Ryan Anderson 1 4-6 7. Totals: 31 16-22 81
Edwardsburg 6 22 33 50
Cassopolis 22 37 52 81
Three-point baskets: Williams (C) 2, Anderson (C). Total fouls: Edwardsburg 15, Cassopolis 14. Fouled out: None.. J.V. score: Cassopolis 67, Edwardsburg 46. Varsity records: Edwardsburg 6-12, 2-11 (LAC)); Cassopolis 11-7, 7-6 (LAC)