WALES — After trailing the entire first half, Monmouth Academy just needed a little energy to get back in its game against Oak Hill.

The Mustangs turned to their energy guy after halftime in Nick Menice, who scored all 12 of his points in the second half to rally Monmouth past the Raiders, 51-40, in an MVC boys’ basketball game Friday night.

The Mustangs (9-5) trailed 21-17 at the half, and fell behind even more when the Raiders (4-10) opened the third quarter on a 6-2 run. Then, Monmouth finished the quarter on a 10-0 run of its own — including consecutive baskets by Menice — to take a 29-27 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Luke Thombs gave the Mustangs the lead doing what he did all game long — nail 3-pointers. The fifth of his six triples came with 2:20 left in the third to make it 29-27.

Menice took over from there in the fourth, scoring eight points as Monmouth pulled away.

“Menice is our high-energy guy. He’s kind of the spark plug,” Monmouth coach Lucas Turner said. “He kind of does it quietly for a while, but he’s nice and consistent. If other guys see what he’s doing he’s contagious.”

Nick Sanborn added six of his eight points in the fourth — including a three-point play. Thombs followed that with his final 3 the next time down to give him a game-high 20 points and give the Mustangs a 39-29 lead.

“We’ve seen this movie before,” Turner said of his team rallying from early deficits. “I told them not to get in a habit of this, of coming back.”

Monmouth was in a hole from the start. Four of Oak Hill’s five starters each made a basket in the first quarter to stake the Raiders to a 9-5 lead. Dalton Therrien then fed Jonah Martin on an alley-oop layup followed by a 3 on Oak Hill’s second and third possession’s of the second to make it 14-8.

Thombs kept the Mustangs in it in the second, hitting three 3s and scoring 11 of his team’s 12 points in the period.

“We controlled the tempo, we wanted to take (Hunter) Richardson out, which we did, and Thombs went off on us,” Oak Hill coach Tom Smith said.

After the Raiders’ hot start to the second half they went cold on offense, and the defense began to crumble.

“Second half we just didn’t play the defense we needed to,” Smith said. “They started hitting their shots. We didn’t make many shots.”

Turner said his team took what Oak Hill gave it, leaning on Thombs when Richardson was smothered, then to Menice and Sanborn when the Raiders adjusted to Thombs’ shooting stroke.

“We tried a few things different here. Shut down Richardson — that was my main goal,” Smith said. “We stayed in the zone a little too much. They hit their shots. Well-coached team.”

Darryn Bailey led the Raiders with 10 points. He scored four of Oak Hill’s six points in the third. Therrien and Marcus Bailey each added nine.

“These guys have really fought hard to get back to where we are and need to be. They know how close we are to getting in the tournament,” Smith said. “We’re still there. These guys are starting to believe that they can make it.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com.

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