North Montgomery Wins and D.J. Byrd Ties School's All-Time Scoring Leader

NORTH MONTGOMERY BOYS BASKETBALL: Chemistry builder

By Bob Cox
[e-mail]
12/13/2008 2:30:00 AM

LINDEN - Opponents are finding something out about the North Montgomery boys basketball team.

There is more to them than just senior D.J. Byrd.

Friday night, the Chargers proved it again with a 75-46 thrashing of Sagamore Athletic Conference rival Tri-West.

North Montgomery forward and Purdue recruit, D.J. Byrd got his average of 24 points against the Bruins, which included three thunderous slam-dunks.

With those 24 points, Byrd is now tied with B.J. Schlicher as the school’s all-time scoring leader.

He can pass Schlicher in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. game against Class 4A McCutcheon.

With the Tri-West defense concentrating on stopping Byrd, junior forward Colin Maltsberger stepped up to score a career-high 20 points.

“Tri-West was playing defense to stop D.J. and that gave me some good looks at the basket,” Maltsberger said. “My teammates did a good job of finding me. All I had to do was run to the wing and I was wide open.”

Maltsberger connected with 5–7 from three-point range, while hitting three of those in the opening quarter when the Chargers broke out to an 18-8 lead.

Boys basketball

Friday

At North Montgomery

North Montgomery 75, Tri-West 46

Tri-West 8 15 14 9 - 46

North Montgomery 19 21 21 14 - 75

Scoring: Tri-West - David Phiefer 0-3 0-0 0, Ben Call 1-2 0-0 3, Tyler Waite 1-1 0-0 2, Lane Cheatum 0-1 2-4 2, Josh Pierle 0-1 0-0 0, Jake Allen 3-8 5-7 11, Caleb McVicker 0-4 1-2 1, Randall Lowe 6-21 4-4 18, Austin Hendershot 2-6 3-4 9. Totals: 13-47 15-21 46. North Montgomery - Clay Pierce 3-9 0-0 7, Jake Thomas 1-4 2-2 4, Andrew Airey 3-4 0-0 6, Colin Maltsberger 7-13 1-2 20, Kal Airey 0-1 0-0 0, Austin Krutzsch 6-7 0-2 12, D.J. Byrd 8-17 5-6 24, Jordan Galloway 0-2 2-2 2. Totals: 28-57 10-14 75.

Three-point shooting: Tri-West 5-16 (Call 1-2, Lowe 2-8, Hendershot 2-6), North Montgomery 9-20 (Pierce 1-5, Maltsberger 5-7, K. Airey 0-1, Byrd 3-7)

Rebounds: Tri-West 25 (Allen 8, Lowe 6), North Montgomery 37 (Krutzsch 12, Byrd 8, Maltsberger 6)

Fouls: Tri-West 14, North Montgomery 19

Fouled out: Pierce NM

Turnovers: Tri-West 18, North Montgomery 13

Records: North Montgomery 3-1 (2-0 SAC), Tri-West 1-3 (1-2 SAC)

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