The Galena Grizzlies didn't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for the McQueen Lancers Thursday night.
"We just tried to go out there and stay humble and work hard," senior Jake Mansfield said after Galena rolled over the shorthanded Lancers, 76-38, at McQueen.
McQueen, which saw three seniors quit the team a month ago, took on the defending Class 4A state champions with just six players. Galena, led by a game-high 26 points from Luke Babbitt, had enough points (39) to win with about two minutes to play in the second quarter in improving to 8-9 overall and 3-0 in the High Desert League.
"It wasn't tough to stay focused with the team I have this year," Galena coach Tom Maurer said. "It wasn't tough at all because we have a lot of kids who are inexperienced."
McQueen had more coaches (two) on the bench than players (one) during the game.
"We're getting better," McQueen coach Tobey Hilliard said. "We're on our way up. I feel very positive about the direction this program is headed."
Galena exploded out to a 35-9 lead with four minutes to go in the second quarter as Babbitt scored 15 points. McQueen, though, outscored Galena 19-17 over the next nine minutes.
"We didn't just roll over," Hilliard said. "The guys we had out there have bought into what we're trying to do. They went out and competed."
The Lancers had balanced scoring as C.J. Grigg and Kyle May scored eight points each, Mike LaGrone and Greg Cooper each had seven and Rollins Stallworth had six. Lucas Boge, the only other Lancer in uniform, had two points.
"We're just trying to teach these kids how to play," Hilliard said. "We want them to compete and defend."
The Lancers, for the most part, accomplished half their mission. They competed well, getting outscored in the second half just 33-22.
Defending, though, was a different story.
"We didn't do a good enough job with the other guys other than Babbitt," Hilliard said. "Luke is a great player and you're not going to shut him down. But we didn't rotate out to the other guys. For most of the game we had two guys guarding Luke and three guys watching him."
Babbitt outscored McQueen by himself at halftime, 17-16.
"We started off slow this year but we're getting better," said Mansfield, who joined Babbitt in double figures with 12 points. "But we also could have done a lot of things better in this game."
Markis Robinson scored seven points and Garrett Womack scored five in the second quarter as Galena built a 43-16 halftime lead. Babbitt, who scored his 26 points in the first three quarters, had nine in the third quarter.
The Grizzlies shot 48 percent (28-of-58) for the game while McQueen shot 28 percent (14-of-50). Galena, which will travel to Las Vegas this morning to play at Eldorado tonight and Desert Pines on Saturday, has now won two games in a row, beating Spanish Springs and McQueen by an average of 32 points this week.
Maurer, though, said the Grizzlies still have some things to work on.
"We played a great first half," Maurer said. "But we then played a mediocre to not-very-good second half."
Mansfield continued his hot shooting with three 3-pointers. The 6-foot-2 guard had two 3-pointers Tuesday night at Spanish Springs.
"Yeah, it's coming around," smiled Mansfield of his 3-point range. "I was real cold early in the year but it's getting better."
The Grizzlies had eight 3-pointers against McQueen after draining four against Spanish Springs.
"The more teams cheat on Babbitt we have to find our open shooters," Maurer said. "We're starting to develop confidence in all our shooters."