Armonniey Thomas

NORWALK — The Marshalltown boys’ basketball team held the state’s most prolific scorer to 23.7 points below his season average.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Class 3A’s top-ranked Warriors are more than just a one-man show.

Norwalk senior Tyler Johnson matched his season-high with 31 points, including six pointers, as the Warriors turned away Marshalltown 78-54 in Monday’s non-conference clash.

Northern Iowa commit Bowen Born, who averages 37.7 points per game for Norwalk (17-3), was given all the attention he deserves by the Marshalltown defense, but the Bobcats (4-17) slipped up in securing the second thing on their scouting report.

“I said our game plan to take No. 13 away was our top priority, and priority two was to take 23 away,” said MHS head coach Michael Appel. “It was hard for our other guys to do out of the defense we were in.”

Among Marshalltown’s assorted defensive alignments were the triangle-and-double team as well as the box-and-one on Born. But when the Bobcats got the ball out of the left-hander’s grasp, it ended up in Johnson’s capable arms.

“We took [Born] out of the game, we just doubled him everywhere he went, but [Johnson] is a really good player too,” Appel added. “We had a hard time finding him in our defenses, and it seemed like every open shot he got he made.”

The second-leading scoring offense in 3A got an additional 14 points from Born and another 12 by Grant Larson.

“I’m pleased with the our guys and how hard they played taking [Born] away, they did a really good job with that and took pride in doing it,” Appel said. “We just had a bad stretch in there with a couple bad turnovers and they capitalized on it and went up from about 10 to 20 in a matter of two minutes.

“The kids played extremely hard tonight. We threw a new defense at them and that’s hard with basically one day to try to prepare. Norwalk made some shots tonight.”

Norwalk didn’t have much luck stopping Armonniey Thomas, either, as Marshalltown’s sophomore guard got 29 points, but his supporting cast was only slightly less effective than Born’s. MHS freshman Drake Kapayou added 12 points, including three 3-pointers, but no other Bobcat had more than four points.

Thomas also led the way with four steals and shared the rebounding honor with Isaiah Borgos with four boards apiece.

Appel also credited sophomore guard Grant Greazel for his two quarters worth of contributions as he was a part of the double-team that chased Born all over the court.

“He did a great job coming in and giving us minutes,” Appel said of Greazel. “His main job was to make sure Bowen didn’t catch the ball, and that was after playing 32 minutes of the sophomore game. He did a great job.”

Marshalltown closes the regular season on the road Friday, taking an eight-game losing streak to Urbandale.

Norwalk 78, Marshalltown 54

At Norwalk

MARSHALLTOWN (4-17) — Armonniey Thomas 11 6-9 29, Drake Kapayou 3 3-4 12, Will Van Buren 0 1-2 1, Isaiah Borgos 2 0-0 4, Aidan DeVolder 1 0-0 3, Austin Shomo 1 0-0 3, Grant Greazel 0 0-0 0, Dwight Joar 0 0-0 0, Trevor Stamp 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 19 10-15 54.

NORWALK (17-3) — Grant Larson 4 2-2 12, Scott Anderson 1 0-0 3, Bowen Born 4 5-5 14, Tyler Johnson 11 3-4 31, Joe Brown 1 0-0 2, Evan Borst 0 0-1 0, Liam Buckley 1 0-1 2, Tyler Wegner 0 0-0 0, Max Juergens 1 0-0 2, Nate Lane 0 2-2 2, Kyle Joniak 1 0-0 2, Cole Tunender 1 0-0 2, Jake Fees 1 0-0 3, Will Crozier 0 0-0 0, Ethan Carlson 1 1-2 3. TOTALS 27 13-17 78.

MHS 13 12 10 19 — 54

NORWALK 21 14 20 23 — 78

3-Point Goals–MHS 6 (Kapayou 3, Thomas, Shomo, DeVolder), Norwalk 11 (Peterson 6, Larson 2, Anderson, Born, Fees). Total Fouls–MHS 20, MHS 13. Fouled Out–none.