Brown, Meridian outlast Trojans

MAROA - Tuesday night was a career-day for Meridian's Caleb Brown. 

Brown, who had only scored 36 points all season, poured in a game-high 26 points for the Hawks as they defeated host Maroa-Forsyth (8-4, 1-1) 62-47. 

"Caleb Brown did a tremendous job moving," Maroa-Forsyth head coach Chad Cluver said. "He did a nice job off the ball and getting to the basket. We didn't do well enough getting a body on him and boxing him out."

Brown posed problems all night for the Maroa-Forsyth defense, a squad that is not used to giving up more than 50 points a game. 

"We don't ever want anyone on an opposing team to get 20 points, and that's not what happened last night," Cluver said. 

Blake Stelzreide started things off well for the Trojans, who held an 11-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Stelzreide scored the team's first seven points and ended up with 20 the whole game. 

"This is something we kind of expect from Blake," Cluver said. "He has a great pull up jump shot and has worked on his outside shot. He handles the ball extremely well and knows how to finish.

"He had a good game. I thought he did fine offensively, but all of us could have done a better job defensively."

The third quarter was particularly tough on the Trojans. Trailing by only three (26-23) at halftime, Maroa was outscored 23-9 in the period. 

"Our goal is to win every quarter, regardless of what happened before," Cluver said. "We especially put an emphasis on playing well in the third quarter, but we did not Tuesday night."

Most of the Trojans offense came on jump shots and three-pointers. Center Jordan Moore was held in check most of the game, only scoring two points and bringing down a pair of rebounds. 

"He doesn't have to have a huge game, but he has to touch the ball more," Cluver said. "He needs to be more active on the glass and we need to do a better job trying to get him the ball."

Defensive struggles and being outrebounded 38-22 in the game is what Cluver cited as reasons for the loss. 

Wyatt Washburn added nine points and Austin Jackson tallied eight for the Trojans. 

The loss was the first in conference for the Trojans this year. 

"The bottom line is that they were more physical than us and played better than us," Cluver said. "We need to work on being more mentally tough and playing our best basketball on a given night."

The Trojans will try to rebound Friday night with a home conference game against Shelbyville.

"We've got to get better every night, no matter if the team your playing is in the top echelon or not," Cluver said. "Shelbyville does a great job preparing and we will have a tough time Friday night."

Although Tuesday was far from their best effort of the season, Cluver is pleased with the progression of this team so far. This may be one of the more balanced teams Cluver has had. There is no 20-point scorer on this team like he had when Robo Kreps and Jordan Zelhart were suiting up for the Trojans. 

This team is much better than last year's version. They just need more consistency on defense and a more all-around offensive game. 

Photo: Maroa-Forsyth's Bo Banning (5) attempts to save the ball from going out of bounds.