Chalk one up for film study. The Madison High School boys held league-leading Furr scoreless for the first seven minutes of their District 24-5A rematch and steamrolled to a 74-49 victory at Butler Fieldhouse.
Madison head coach Craig Maura said the playoff-bound Marlins tirelessly studied film of the first-round loss to Furr and cleaned up some mistakes. “We saw that most of their points came in the paint,” he said.
“We tried to make them score from the outside and take the paint away this time. We created some problems for them,” Maura said.
Leading scorer Jeremiah Gambrell (23 ppg) scored four of the first eight points for Madison and had 12 in the first half as the Marlins took a 41-14 advantage into intermission.
There was no letup in the second half as Madison led by as many as 28 points (64-36) following a three-pointer by Kevon Green in the fourth quarter.
Gambrell scored a game-high 20 points to lead a balanced attack that included key contributions from Green (12 points), Dashawn Williams (six points), T.J. Moore (six points), Ronald Harleston (18 points) and Kylon Bryant (8 points).
“Jeremiah brings us leadership and he makes us go,” Maura said. “He’s been on varsity since he was a freshman and Dashawn has three years on varsity. That’s a ton of experience.
“Kylon did a great job for us on the boards tonight,” Maura said. “That’s one of the few games that we’ve actually won the battle of the boards.”
Gambrell said the team had a different mindset going against Furr the second time around.
“The first time we played them we lost on careless mistakes from lack of hustle and not getting back on defense,” he said.
“This game we came out prepared to play defense, cut off the baseline, hustling for rebounds and we were more energized,” Gambrell said. “We learned from our mistakes.”
Madison (11-3) trails Furr by one game and both teams have two league games remaining. Houston Sterling is also still in the hunt for a district title.
Gambrell has committed to Western Kentucky after de-committing from Baylor. The 6-foot-2 senior point guard patterns his game after Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving.
“My shot has been a little off lately but my goal is to shoot like Steph and handle like Kyrie,” he said.
Gambrell has been playing basketball since he was four years old and he came into his senior year with a spirited game plan.
“I’m trying to get a state championship for my team,” he said. “My freshman and sophomore years we lost early in the playoffs so I need to up my game and maybe average 30 points and 12 assists to help us go farther.”
About Jeremiah Gambrell
Birth date – Jan. 12, 2000
Birth sign – Capricorn
Favorite school subject – Math
Favorite food – Nachos
How he relaxes – Spends time with family and plays video games
World problem he would solve – Crime