Polo sprints past Hiawatha in regional quarterfinal

The Marcos used a stellar transition game and their size advantage inside to roll to a 78-61 victory Tuesday night in a quarterfinal of the Class 1A Polo Regional.

Polo (19-7) scored 14 first-half layups, eight coming on fast breaks, and also added 10 points off putbacks and eight more from inside 10 feet to run out to a 50-21 halftime lead.

"We came in ready to run, and it worked out," Polo junior Brian Cavanaugh said. "We thought they'd slow things down, try and get us to play slower, but they kept running right with us, and we took advantage of it."

While the Marcos turned easy opportunities into 50 percent shooting (23-for-46) in the first half, the Hawks (5-19) struggled trying to match Polo's pace. Hiawatha shot just 23.5 percent (8-for-34) from the floor, and the Marcos made sure the quick misses were one-and-done.

Polo led 11-2 midway through the first quarter, extended the lead to 34-11 midway through the second, and led by as many as 35 points (56-21) less than 2 minutes into the third period.

"We wanted to try and run them out of the gym," Polo coach Matt Messer said, "use our depth and see if they could keep up. Our transition offense really got going; a lot of times there in the first half, we'd have such good passing and spacing up the floor that we'd take maybe one dribble and get a layup."

Still, Messer was left shaking his head afterward. Hiawatha outscored the Marcos 40-22 over the final 14 minutes, as junior point guard Panch Gonzalez Garcia started breaking containment and penetrating Polo's zone defense.

"I've never had a game where we won by 17 and it felt like we lost," Messer said. "We just didn't have a real good effort on defense, especially in the second half, and we need to be better than that if we want to keep going in the postseason."

The Marcos spread the wealth offensively, and 13 players saw extensive minutes. Zach Quaco, Brady Bushman and Brian Cavanaugh led the way with 14 points each, while fowards AJ Dollmeyer (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Austin Reeder (10 points, 11 rebounds) added double-doubles.