HALLSVILLE, Mo. - The North Callaway Thunderbirds suffered from their inexperience.
North Callaway committed 17 turnovers and shot a meager 24 percent (10-of-41) from the field as the Thunderbirds were throttled by the Hallsville Indians 67-26 on Friday night.
"Hallsville's a really good team and we're a really young team," North Callaway head coach Matt Miller said. "They started four juniors and a senior, and we started three sophomores (and two juniors) tonight. We're super-young, so we're going to have some nights where we're going to have some growing pains."
The Indians (2-0) got off to a swift start by scoring the first 13 points of the game. Hallsville junior guard Ethan Thompson ended that stretch with three free throws with 5 minutes, 11 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Thunderbirds (0-2) committed eight turnovers in the period and found themselves staring at an imposing 23-3 deficit.
"They (Indians) came out and pressed, and we didn't handle it very well," Miller said. "The scouting report was don't turn the ball over and get out to their shooters, and we didn't do either of those very well.
"But as a young team, we're going to learn from it."
Hallsville continued its rampage in the second quarter, outscoring North Callaway 29-10 to build a commanding 52-13 advantage at halftime. The Indians owned a 66-23 lead going to the fourth quarter.
Sophomore forward Xavier Sykes led the Thunderbirds with six points and nine rebounds.
Thompson produced a game-high 18 points for Hallsville, while sophomore guard Luke Hicks supplied 15. Junior guard Graham Moser followed with 12 points.
"They moved the ball really well," Miller said. "They have multiple scorers and No. 23 (Thompson) was a handful."
North Callaway lost the junior varsity varsity game 52-36. Sophomore forward Mark Hollenberg led the Thunderbirds (0-1) with nine points. Junior forward Brandon Vincent directed Hallsville (3-0) with a game-high 20 points.
North Callaway will be the No. 8 seed in this week's 61st-annual Centralia Tournament. The Thunderbirds play top-seeded Boonville in the first round at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"Boonville is a tough team, they're (comparable to) Hallsville and maybe even a notch above Hallsville (the No. 4 seed)," Miller said. "We're going to see a lot of the same thing with a lot of ball pressure and a lot of traps, and they're gonna get out and run as well.
"I just told the boys in the locker room that there's no reason that we can't play some meaningful games in the Centralia Tournament or the rest of the season. That means a hardware game - if that's a consolation game, that's fine. Just playing in a meaningful game in a tournament will be awesome for our young guys."