FARMINGTON -- Gravette's first half numbers weren't bad, four made 3-pointers and 32 points, but they paled in comparison to Farmington's 52 first half points in Friday's 90-50 blowout loss.
Layne Taylor scored 26 of his game-high 34 points for the Cardinals in the first half as Farmington (21-0. 4-0) overwhelmed Gravette (13-5, 2-2) in 4A-1 boys basketball action at Cardinal Arena. Layne Taylor was far from the only Cardinal hitting. His quartet of 3-pointers represented one fourth of Farmington's 12 threes. Sam Kirkman sank a trio of triples with Maddox Mahan knocking down a pair, and Jaxon Berry, Jaeden Newsom and Maddox Teeter rounding out the barrage.
"With Farmington you've got to be able to guard all five and we didn't do good enough guarding them," said Gravette coach Matt Busch. "Our kids work really hard in practice. The shots just didn't fall for them tonight. I'm always thankful to be the coach at Gravette and get the type of effort our kids give at Gravette."
Farmington coach Johnny Taylor expressed a similar observation, saying Busch is one of the best coaches in the conference as far as the things he runs and how hard he gets the Lions to play.
"Our bench was huge tonight. Jaeden Newsom played great off the bench. Him and Maddox Mahan, those guys making shots really helped," Johnny Taylor said.
Farmington got out to an 18-5 lead on Berry's old fashioned 3-point play followed by Layne Taylor's first trifecta of the contest less than 30 seconds later.
The Lions rallied with an 11-3 run of their own over a 1:15 span. Gunnar Woolard, Holden Betz and Isaiah Larson buried back-to-back-to-back threes and Will Betz converted both ends of a 1-and-1 to cut Farmington's lead to 21-16 with 30.3 seconds left in the first quarter.
Maddox Teeter ended the run by busting a trifecta for Farmington with just seconds showing and Layne Taylor deflected a Lion pass as time expired in the first quarter with Farmington ahead, 24-16.
Woolard knocked down an 18-footer and Sam De Witt scored driving to the hoop to keep Gravette within 35-28. De Witt couldn't convert a 3-point play and Farmington closed out the last 3:06 of the first half with a 17-4 run to take control.
Layne Taylor started the run by penetrating and scoring in the paint. Newsom added a bucket on a feed from Layne Taylor, and after Will Betz' free throws for the Lions, added a sensational putback while hanging in the air. Layne Taylor converted a Gravette turnover with a short jumper bouncing in, and in less than a minute-and-half Farmington doubled its lead to 14.
The Lions hurt themselves by missing a pair of free throws, fouling on the rebound, then fouling Layne Taylor on a 3-point attempt at the other end. Layne Taylor made 2-of-3 freebies. Newsom again crashed the offensive glass. He was fouled and sank both free throws.
Larson hit a free throw for Gravette, but the Lions didn't get a body on Layne Taylor, who misfired on a trey from the top-of-the-key, then tracked down his own rebound to the left of the box. He scored to make it 49-30 with 35 seconds to go in the first half.
Two more missed free throws didn't help Gravette, but they controlled the rebound and Munoz was fouled. At last somebody converted a pair of foul shots for the Lions, but they wasted an opportunity when Farmington turned the ball over on a traveling violation. Possession reverted to Farmington on a charging call and Layne Taylor nailed a pull-up trey at the buzzer to widen the Cardinal lead to 52-32 at halftime.
Farmington outscored Gravette 28-11 in the third to activate the sportsmanship rule with an 80-43 lead at the end of the third quarter. Will Betz led the Lions with 13 points while Woolard was limited to seven.
"Sam Wells, defensively, he was our lockdown defender. Sam makes it difficult on eveybody's best player and he did a great job on the Woolard kid," Johnny Taylor said.
What's scary for opponents is that Farmington's ran off 21 wins to start the season playing short-handed. The Blakely twins were still out last week and another major factor is that Layne Taylor doesn't have to carry the scoring load every night out.
"Layne got going offensively. He shot it better. He hasn't been shooting it great, but really he hasn't had to. Tonight, I was happy that he got going, got back to making perimeter shots," Johnny Taylor said. "I think it's a total team effort with balanced scoring and I'm proud of how well we guarded in the second half. We gave up 32 points in the first half and 18 in the second, so I was proud of our defensive effort."
Farmington 90, Gravette 50
Gravette^16^16^11^7^--^50
Farmington^24^28^28^10^--^90
Farmington (21-0, 4-0): Layne Taylor 14 2-3 34, Jaxon Berry 6 5-7 18, Sam Kirkman 3 0-0 9, Jaeden Newsom 3 2-2 9, Maddox Mahan 2 0-0 6, Maddox Teeter 1 0-0 3, Kaden Hughes 2 0-0 4, Hunter Reaves 1 0-0 2, Zac Miller 1 0-0 2, Reece Rankin 0 2-2 2, Alex Stanley 1 0-1 2, . Totals 34 11-15 91.
Gravette (13-5, 2-2): Will Betz 4 5-6 13, Gunner Woolard 3 0-0 7, Munoz 1 5-5 7, Holden Betz 2 0-0 6, Isaiah Larson 1 3-5 6, Jace Sandoval 1 1-1 3, Sam De Witt 1 0-1 2, Schulz 0 2-2 2, Gabe Holmes 0 2-4 2, Myers 0 2-2 2. Totals 13 20-26 50.
3-Point Goals: Farmington 12 (Taylor 4, Kirkman 3, Mahan 2, Berry, Newsom, Teeter). Gravette 4 (H. Betz 2, Woolard, Larson).
Rebounds -- Farmington 28 (Taylor 4, Hughes 4, Kirkman 4, Teeter 4). Assists -- Farmington 22 (Taylor 6).
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/Farmington junior Jaeden Newsom makes a play on the ball, causing a deflection and a wild scramble that only ended with Gravette calling time-out to preserve its possession. Farmington boys basketball coach Johnny Taylor applauded the defensive effort. The Cardinals won big, 90-50, on Friday to improve their conference record to 4-0 with a 21-0 overall record.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/A pair of Gravette defenders rotate over too late to prevent Farmington's Maddox Teeter from firing up a 3-pointer in the corner. Teeter scored on the play as the Cardinals opened up a 21-14 lead with a minute left in the first quarter. Farmington won 90-50.