TRENTON — Carson Poe didn’t want to take full credit for the Monroe High School boys basketball team’s second-half surge Friday night.
But in retrospect, the 6-foot-5 junior did have a lot to do with it.
Poe scored a team-high 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and the visiting Hornets regrouped in the final two quarters to register a 56-45 Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division victory over the Edgewood Cougars.
“It was not myself — it was mostly my teammates,” said Poe, who made 8 of 10 free throws and bucketed 12 of his points in the second half. “They were feeding me the ball almost every single time. Luckily, I was getting fouled. Usually, I don’t get that many foul calls, and I shot from the free throw line pretty well — which gave me the majority of my points.”
Monroe (6-6, 2-2 SWBL) has won three in a row and four out of its last five. The Hornets have won four out of their last five meetings against the Cougars.
“I thought Edgewood did a great job in the first half defensively — just making every pass difficult,” Monroe coach Casey Popplewell said. “We went over a couple things to make that a little easier on ourselves, and it kind of got away from what we normally do — which is not a secret. We run a flex. We got away from that a little bit. It helped us get them off our pattern.
“Carson was huge. They couldn’t do much with him but foul him.”
Popplewell said the game plan was to involve Poe a lot more inside the paint offensively. Edgewood (2-8, 1-3 SWBL) eliminated that option for the most part early on.
“We said it in pregame. We said it all week. We said it last week, too. That was certainly a point of emphasis. We talk about it all the time.”
MJ Mapp had 13 points and Kemper Atha added 12 for Monroe, which trailed 23-19 at halftime.
“We stopped defending. We made bad decisions,” Edgewood coach Jason Osterman said. “We didn’t get many good looks in the fourth quarter. They went on a run, and our guys kind of folded.”
Monroe outscored Edgewood 23-8 in the final period, and Poe’s presence in the key was ultimately the decider.
“The big kid inside hurt us,” Osterman said. “But I think it was more of us not getting stops and our offensive execution.”
Jaylen Barry provided most of the Cougars’ offense. The senior guard scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in the second half.
Tyson Daley had 11 points for Edgewood, which has lost five in a row and seven out of its last eight.
UP NEXT
The Cougars have a quick turnaround and travel to Eaton on Saturday. The Hornets host Waynesville on Tuesday. … Edgewood visits Monroe for their second meeting on Feb. 9.
