Monticello — The Wayne County Cardinals and the Monticello Trojans met in their second matchup of the regular season on Saturday, January 9. The Cards had won the earlier meeting between the two teams this season 82-60 at Monticello High School.

Wayne County hosted last Saturday night's contest and the Cards got the quick start to take the early lead and ended up with the 73-41 win.

"We were a little rusty on the offensive end from the layoff, but defensively we were very good," said Wayne County coach Rodney Woods.

The Cards defense held Monticello to only two points in the opening quarter. Senior guard Derrick Peyton scored the only basket for the Trojans in the opening stanza, as Monticello was only 1 of 12 from the field. Wayne County led 14-2 at the first stop.

In the second quarter, Wayne County outscored the Trojans 16-10 to take a 30-12 lead at the intermission.

While the Trojans shot it much better in the second half of the game, they could not overcome their earlier offensive troubles. Wayne County led

50-22 at the end of the third quarter on their way to the win.

"We had way too many unforced turnovers and never got into a rhythm offensively," said MHS coach Trevis Upchurch.

The Trojans committed 24 turnovers in the game. Wayne County had 15 turnovers.

Monticello was led offensively by Austin Foster with 13 points and Chase Lowe with 11 points. Foster hit 2 of 3 from beyond the arc and was 3 of 4 from the charity stripe. Lowe led Monticello in rebounding with 9.

Peyton and Perkins finished with 4 points each for the Trojans.

For the game, the Trojans shot 27 percent from the field, hitting 14 of 51. They were 9 of 12 from the charity stripe for 75 percent and hit 4 of 15 on 3-pointers for 26 percent.

The Cards were led by junior forward Gavin Dunagan with 22 points.

Dunagan was 6 of 10 from the field and a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line. He also led the Cards in rebounds with 14 and in steals with 3.

Junior forward Austin Shearer finished with 13 points. Shearer pulled down 8 rebounds and surpassed the 500 rebound mark in his career.

Dagan Shelton finished with 10 points.

Wayne County was 25 of 53 from the field for 47 percent. They hit 22 of

24 from the free throw line for 91 percent and were only 1 of 8 on 3-pointers for 12 percent.

The Cards out-rebounded Monticello 39-32.

With the win, Wayne County improved to 12-4 on the season, while Monticello dropped to 4-13.

Next up for the Trojans was a home game on Monday against Casey County.

The Cards hosted Clay County on Tuesday night.

"We really have a tough challenge coming up with Clay County," noted Woods.

See next week's edition for details on both these games.