By Josh Sigler
WALTON — Peru’s defense continues to cause its opponents fits.
The Class 3A No. 2-ranked Bengals turned up the heat on Cass with a harassing man-to-man shield, forcing the Kings into a 15-for-45 night from the field in a 57-34 road victory.
The Tigers, who entered the night allowing a state-best 38-points per game, allowed fewer than 40 points for the ninth time this season.
Cass’ 2-3 zone limited Peru offensive attempts early, allowing the Kings to stay close.
The Tigers however, responded with a 15-3 run over the final four minutes of the second period to break open what was a tied contest (18-18) before the surge.
“Our guys, possibly, weren’t up to where we needed to be ready to play,” Peru coach Eric Thompson said. “Cass is well coached, and has been in a lot of ballgames. We weren’t playing the defense like we normally had, weren’t rebounding like we should have. Once we got our bearings, and started playing Tiger basketball, good things started happening for us.”
The sluggish Tiger start had no effect on senior Terry Smith.
Peru (14-1, 5-0 Mid-Indiana Conference) was limited to seven field goal attempts in the first period, but made the most of them, connecting on five.
Smith hit three of those, one coming on a 3-pointer from the right side at the 3:54 mark, and scored Peru’s first eight points of the night.
Cass senior Evan Depew countered with six points of his own in the first stanza, helping the Kings stay within striking distance early on.
Cass (4-11, 0-5 MIC) remained within three, 13-10, by the end of the first period.
Six-foot-7 junior Jake Rouch, who returned from injury Friday, completed an old-fashioned three-point play to help the Kings knot the score at 18-18 with 4:20 to go in the first half.
“I thought we put a good gameplan together,” Cass coach Matt Carver said.
“We watched [Peru] play Taylor and Western — both of those teams played a 2-3 zone against them and seemed to slow them down a little bit and forced them to shoot outside jumpshots. We really came out focused on working on the defensive end, making sure that we put together four quarters of basketball. The problem was that we only put together about two quarters and ran out of steam.”
Peru proceeded to catch fire, reeling off a 15-3 rally to close the half, nine of those points coming from Smith.
Smith started the rally with a triple from the top of the key on a Justin Engel kickout. He closed the half on a rebound putback just before the buzzer on an Engel miss in the paint, giving the Tigers a 33-21 lead at the half.
Smith poured in 18 first-half points on 7 of 8 shooting.
“Terry did a great job on the offensive end in the first half, and in the second half, he did a great job on the defensive end,” Thompson said.
“He’s doing a great job of quarterbacking the team, getting us in the right offenses and defenses — just taking what the opponents give us.”
Peru did away with any thoughts of a Cass comeback with a 10-0 run to start the second half.
Smith scored a pair of transition buckets in the rally, and Danny Comerford buried a jumper from the short corner.
Wes Zimmerman’s 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:10 to go in the third put Peru up 25 at 50-25.
Cass got no closer than 22 the rest of the way.
Smith led all scorers with 23 points, hitting on 9 of 10 shots from the floor.
Engel added 13 points, seven rebounds and six steals in the victory.
Cass was led by Depew’s eight points and seven boards.
Edgerly, who entered the week averaging 17.4 points a game, was held to seven points, and went 0 for 5 from beyond the arc.
