Fulton boys basketball went on a 12-0 run to begin the game and had double-double performances by Walker Gohring and Colby Lancaster en route to upsetting its Highway 54 rival, Class 4 No. 6 Mexico.
The No. 2 seed Hornets beat the No. 1 seed Bulldogs, 69-52, in the championship game of the Montgomery County R-II Varsity Basketball Invitational Saturday evening in Montgomery City. With the result, Fulton remain undefeated and move to 4-0, while Mexico lost its first game of the campaign and drop to 3-1.
Throughout the game, Walker and Lancaster prevented the Bulldogs from getting anything done offensively, recording 13 and 11 rebounds, respectively.
"Walker, I mean, I don't know if I got words; it'd take me an hour I can to tell you about Walker," Fulton coach Justin Gilmore said. "He gives it all every night for us. Put his body on the line. He was dealing with an ankle (injury) from the other night. ... I think he gave us all 32 minutes tonight. Made a lot of big free throws in a stretch."
And on the offensive side, the pair both put up over 20 points -- Walker finished with a team-high 25 points, while Lancaster scored 20.
"Colby manned the paint and scored in the paint," Gilmore said. "He's a load down there; it's hard to stop."
Right from the get-go, Fulton's star duo showcased their talent. In the Hornets' 12-0 run to start the game, Walker notched five points, three rebounds, and a steal, while Lancaster recorded a rebound, block and point each.
"Our guys who are a special, special group, and they sat down, and they guarded for 30-32 minutes," Gilmore said. "But especially to come out of the gate, just the way they sat down and gave all their effort and shutdown drives and shut off any gap lanes that they had at the basket. We were rebounding. And then that was what led to us being able to get out and run a little bit and score early."
After Lancaster went 1-for-2 from the line, Walker made the Hornets' first shot from the field, landing a 3-pointer from the top of the arc on a screen play. Then, an integral supporting player on Fulton, Donovan Weigel, put down a highlight reel two-handed dunk in transition.
Following a Walker layup, his brother Rowdy Gohring scored the final points of the spectacular run, sinking a contested 3-pointer from the right corner.
Mexico finally got some points on the board, when Jordan Shelton -- who scored a game-high 30 points -- stole the ball from the Hornets and made a layup in transition.
Leading 15-4 after the first quarter, Fulton's Weigel scored the first two points of the quarter on a layup. The Bulldogs responded by making two 3-pointers unanswered, which put the score at 17-10.
Walker and the Hornets weren't pleased with their lead going down to single digits. So to fix the problem, Walker landed a top-of-the-arc 3-pointer that put Fulton up 20-10.
Fulton continued to cause problems for Mexico throughout the second quarter and finished the half with a couple of flashy plays. The first play was a Lancaster put-back shot for two points, and the second was Walker zig-zagging through the Bulldogs for a floater, which was the final scoring play of the half and put the Hornets up 29-13.
Fulton picked up where it left off in the third quarter, outscoring Mexico 15-11. The Hornets' Rowdy made a couple of shots in the quarter, with one helping Fulton stay comfortable.
With the score at 35-24, Rowdy drained a 3-pointer from the top right of the arc from a great pass from a teammate. After that play, Fulton held a double-digit lead for the rest of the contest.
"Just staying together, and even when we had a bad possession, we turned it over a couple of times," Gilmore said. "We missed some layups. They kept getting together. I could see huddling, getting together and calming each other down; we weren't screaming at each other. We weren't yelling at each other for making mistakes. We were uplifting each other and picking each other off the ground, and keeping our composure. I guess that's what I love about this group so much. They're so close-knit; they're so together -- they don't get down."
The Bulldogs did their best to fight back in the fourth, outscoring Fulton for the only quarter, 28-25.
While Mexico looked better in the final eight minutes, the Hornets had the quarter's most impressive play. That play was a Walker alley-oop pass to Lancaster, who slammed it down with authority.
A Bulldog fan said after witnessing the play, "That's the kind of play you see in the NBA."
Mexico's supporters were not only in awe of a Fulton play in the fourth, but they were also excited by the performances of the Bulldogs' Shelton and Jaydon Eldrige, who scored eight points and made two 3-pointers, respectively.
What largely kept the Hornets up by a wide margin and the Bulldogs out of it in the last eight minutes was Fulton going 11-of-12 from the free-throw line.
Fittingly after Lancaster collected a rebound, the Hornets ran down the clock before celebrating an emphatic victory over their fiercest rival.
"It's big for these seniors," Gilmore said. "They've been putting in so much work for four years to finally see some of the fruits of their labor here. It is awesome to beat a really talented team like Mexico; they're state-ranked. We gotta play them two more times this year, and they're gonna be another really good team this year. To beat a talented team like them in this awesome gym -- I gotta give credit to Montgomery County -- I love this gym, and this tournament they put on is amazing."
After Fulton finished celebrating came the post-tournament ceremony, with the Hornets receiving their championship trophy and individual medals. Not only that, Lancaster was named tournament MVP and was part of the all-tournament team along with Walker.
"The fruits of their labor," Gilmore said. "Those dudes work so hard. Walker is first one in the gym, (the) last one out most nights. Him and Donnie (Weigel) and getting in putting in work all the time. We've been in the weight room like an animal this year and really putting on some muscle and getting stronger. It's nice to see all the work that you put in and have rewards, and they deserve it."
Fulton (4-0) will hope to stay in the win column when it opens North Central Missouri Conference play against Hannibal (2-1) at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Fulton.
"The NCMC is one of the toughest conferences around," Gilmore said. "Everybody can beat anybody on any night. Everybody's good in our conference. So we're gonna have to really bring it. It's nice to have a home game; we don't have many home games this year. But it's nice to have one after this super long week. But we'll sit down, we really haven't really watched any film on Hannibal yet, but we'll sit down and watch it this weekend. But from last year, they were pretty good. So they think they beat us at home last year, or maybe two years (ago). ...They're a good team, so it'll be a tough test on Tuesday."
The Montgomery County R-II Varsity Basketball Invitational all-tournament team with their medals Saturday evening at Montgomery County High School in Montgomery City. From left to right: Colby Lancaster and Walker Gohring (Fulton), Parker Anderson (Hermann), Jordan Shelton and DJ Long (Mexico) and Clayton Parker (Montgomery County). (Fulton Sun/Robby Campbell)
Fulton's team with their trophy and individual medals after beating rival Mexico in the Montgomery County R-II Varsity Basketball Invitational Saturday evening at Montgomery County High School in Montgomery City. (Fulton Sun/Robby Campbell)