Career nights from Travis keeps Baxter boys unbeaten

BAXTER — The Baxter boys’ basketball team didn’t play badly in the first half against Martensdale-St. Marys on Monday.

But the back-and-forth nature of the game was a little too close for the Bolts and a halftime speech was all Treyton Travis needed to get going.

Travis scored 18 of his career-high 36 points in the third quarter and a 13-point surplus in the frame pushed Baxter to a 77-57 win over the Blue Devils during non-conference play.

“(Coach) Hass always gives good talks at halftime,” Travis said. “That got me a little pumped. It was closer than we wanted it to be at halftime so I tried to get to the hoop more. Tonight just happened to be my night.”

The Bolts’ best player had 11 points at the break and Baxter led by six. The hosts outscored the Blue Devils 29-16 in the third to pull away for good.

“There were no words at halftime,” Baxter head boys’ basketball coach Zach Hasselbrink said. “We just talked about our energy and effort as a collective group and we have to make sure no one can match us in those areas. (Treyton) might have taken that to heart.”

The Bolts scored the first seven points of the game. All seven came at the free-throw line.

After the visitors got within one, Ben Richardson buried a pair of 3s to end the quarter. Matt Richardson then put the Bolts up 16-8 with a trey of his own.

Martensdale-St. Marys though rallied behind Cale Morrow, who finished with 28 points in the loss.

The Blue Devils (0-4) scored 10 of the next 12 points to take a 19-18 lead. Morrow scored six of those points off layups.

The rest of the half was back-and-forth as the lead changed two more times before the Bolts ended the quarter on a 7-0 run to lead 27-21 at halftime. Travis scored six of the seven points during that stretch.

“There was a lot of good, but we were not satisfied at halftime,” Hasselbrink said. “There were too many swings for our liking. We had to find stops at a consistent basis and ultimately it didn’t feel like we should have been in that position at halftime. It took us a while to get to where we wanted to be.”

A three-point play from Cainan Travis and a bucket inside the lane by Perrin Sulzle opened the second half, but the Blue Devils didn’t go away quietly.

Morrow ended an 8-0 run with back-to-back 3s to get the visitors within 32-29. That’s when Treyton Travis took over.

His steal and layup followed by a three-point play quickly pushed the margin to eight and then a pair of free throws and a jumper extended the advantage to 10.

Another steal plus a layup and two free throws made it 49-35 and his only 3 of the night pushed the Bolts’ advantage to 18 and they led 56-37 after three quarters.

“He had three or four steals at the top of our press and converted those to layups,” Hasselbrink said. “That’s six or eight points just off playing defense the way we want him to and the way he’s done in previous years.

“Although his role has changed offensively, the role defensively has not and he has to understand that defense turns to offense. When we are playing at our best, he’s playing strong defense at the front of our press, and that’s what turned the game around for us.”

The Bolts (4-0) connected on 26-of-34 from the foul line in the game. Treyton Travis opened the fourth with four straight from the line and Ben Richardson buried a pair to extend the lead to 62-39.

Morrow made three treys in the fourth to keep the Blue Devils relatively close.

But a 10-0 run by the Bolts that featured buckets inside by Treyton Travis and Sulzle, a 3 by Ben Richardson and free throws by Treyton Travis and Carter Smith pushed the lead to 77-48 and the hosts went on to win by 20.

“With the new rules and shooting after five fouls, making free throws is going to be big,” Hasselbrink said. “That’s a big piece of the game. We practice them a lot, and it was good to see the guys knock them down when they needed to knock them down. It’s a big part of the game, and I was glad to see us execute those.”

Treyton Travis led all scorers with a career-high 36 points. That’s two points off the school record set by Carson Scroggins last season.

Travis also added eight rebounds, two assists and seven steals, while Ben Richardson chipped in a career-best 14 points and two boards and Sulzle tallied 13 points, six boards and two steals.

Stadan Vansice registered three points, six rebounds and two steals and Matt Richardson, Cainan Travis and Logan Rainsbarger all scored three points.

“We’ve had at least two or three guys every night so far who have gotten into double figures,” Treyton Travis said. “We have plenty of guys who can score and that’s important.”

The Bolts shot 39.3 percent from the floor and made 7-of-21 from 3.

Baxter is playing without one of their best players in Eli Dee, but if Ben Richardson shoots like he did on Monday the Bolts will be tough to beat most nights.

“Ben is a guy who was hiding in the shadows who no one is thinking about or waiting for,” Hasselbrink said. “He has the ability to do a lot of things off the dribble, but to see him hit four 3s tonight is a game-changer for us.

“If he’s going to shoot like that, we have a scary team. We are playing well but are still trying to figure out the chemistry. That will change when Eli is back and at full strength. To play well down a man is awesome though.”

Morrow was 6-of-12 from 3 and scored 19 of his 28 points in the second half. Five of his treys came in the final two quarters, too, and he added seven rebounds.

The Blue Devils shot 38 percent from the floor, made 9-of-25 from 3 and connected on 4-of-6 from the foul line.

Baxter 68, BCLUW 48

One night after coming up two points shy of the single-game scoring school record, Treyton Travis went into the record books for the Bolts as his career-high 41 points led Baxter to a 68-48 home win over BCLUW on Tuesday.

The new school-record output for Travis came in the game Coach Hasselbrink recorded his 100th career win. And it improved the Bolts to 3-0 in the Iowa Star Conference South Division.

Baxter led 13-10 after one but outscored the Comets 22-3 in the second and never trailed again. The Bolts won the third 15-9 and the Comets had a 26-18 advantage in the fourth.

Treyton Travis added five rebounds, six steals and two assists to his 41 points.

Sulzle chipped in 12 points, nine rebounds, a career-high and school-record seven blocks and two steals and Ben Richardson registered nine points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals.

Cainan Travis grabbed six rebounds and Matt Richardson and Cade Robinson both swiped two steals.

The Bolts shot 46 percent from the floor, made 4-of-18 from 3 and buried 10-of-15 from the charity stripe. Baxter committed 15 turnovers.

Cael Keller led the Comets (0-3, 0-3) with 20 points, while Logan Scafferi tallied 15 points.

BCLUW shot 35 percent from the floor, connected on 9-of-15 from 3 and made 3-of-7 from the foul line. The Comets committed 20 turnovers.