Mavs post dominant win

The North Country Mavericks picked up their first win of 2022, with a lopsided 83-39 victory over the Frazer Bearcubs on Saturday, January 15, in Hinsdale.

The Mavericks are scheduled to host the Dodson Coyotes in Whitewater on Friday, January 21. The boys' varsity game is set to start at 7:30. The boys JV are set to kick off the event at 5 p.m. The JV game will have four - four-minute quarters. The Mavericks will then head to Circle to face the Wildcats at 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 22.

In the Mavericks’ win over Frazer, North Country was led by Trey Johnson who had 23 points. Blaine Downing had 20 points. Aiden Albus had 18 points and Coy Bowman had 10 points.

“Going into the Frazer game we wanted to push the ball up the court and keep them off-balance,” Mavericks Head Coach Barry Malone said. “Most teams press us due to our inexperience at the guard position. Our three freshman guards stepped up and played a tremendous game. We were able to get many looks at the basket on their press.”

Coach Malone said that the team shot at least 90 percent from the field in the first half, mostly on layups and buckets in the paint.

“We really cut down on our turnovers, which is one of our weaker areas.” Coach Malone said.

The Mavericks lost 71-29 to Lustre last Friday, January 14, in Lustre.

“We knew the Lustre game would be one of the toughest this year,” Coach Malone said. “Lustre has a very experienced and athletic team. We got down by 10 in the 1st quarter. We kept around there for a while in the 2nd quarter, but we started to pile up mistakes and it snowballed towards the end of the first half.”

Coach Malone hopes to make adjustments in future games that help the team avoid giving up early leads.

“In most of our losses this season we have been blown out in one quarter alone, putting ourselves in a big hole making it extremely difficult to get out of,” Coach Malone said. “One of our goals the second half of the season is to make better adjustments when teams put more pressure on us, so we can keep those games close.”