The North Callaway boys’ roster is full of shooters and proved it during Saturday’s Gary Filbert Classic.

Filbert Photos

The Thunderbirds hit 11 3-pointers and had nine players score in a 69-47 victory against Community R-6 at the Mexico Sports Complex. Gavin Allen led the Trojans (4-4) with a double-double of 20 points and 13 rebounds along with two blocks, but it was too little against the hot-shooting North Callaway (4-3).

Matthew Weber, who led the Thunderbirds in scoring a season ago but has been out injured, played in his second game and made his first start since recovering from an ankle issue. He didn’t waste that much time as he knocked two of North Callaway’s first four 3-pointers for a 16-9 lead at 2:22 in the first quarter.

Head coach Matt Miller said bringing Weber back obviously gives North Callaway another serious scoring threat but also gives opposing defenses yet another shooter to worry about.

“He can go score 20-30 any night,” Miller said. “This really was his first game where we extended his minutes. He only played 10 minutes the other night (four days prior against Van-Far). He’s still shaking off the rust. That’s just game conditioning.”

Weber finished with a team-high 15 points alongside Sam Pezold, whose three 3-pointers and three steals he matched. Jordan Fishburn received the start and scored 13 points, hitting three 3-pointers, and Isaiah Craighead finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

Community fell behind double-digits after one quarter at 24-11 after sustaining six 3-pointers on defense. Early in the second quarter, Allen hit the first of two Trojan 3-pointers only for North Callaway to respond with back-to-back 3-pointers by Braydn O’Neal and Fishburn.

“Give credit to North Callaway as they are a good team and well-rounded,” Community head coach Tad Shotten said. “I thought we made some mistakes in the first half that allowed them to pull away, their depth and our lack of depth really hurt us. They can hurt you in a lot of ways.”

Allen had a bigger second half, pulling down 10 rebounds and dropping 11 points on the Thunderbirds, and Eli Johnson scored seven of his 12 points in the fourth quarter.

“My guys did play really hard, but we needed to shoot the ball better and communicate better than we did,” Shotten said. “We will get better from this loss."

The strength Allen and the rest of the Trojans have at the rim convinced Miller that the Thunderbirds should use their speed and the many capable players on their roster.

“If we move the ball, we have a little bit more team speed than them,” Miller said. “If we move the ball and move ourselves, we’re going to get good looks. We moved the ball really well and shared the ball really well and a lot of guys scored. We’re pretty balanced throughout the game, and it was just a good solid team win.”

North Callaway led 51-30 after three quarters when Pezold found Aidan Martin for a jumper to end the third quarter. Martin had four rebounds but doesn’t usually score often, which was also the case for Gabe Heuer until he hit a jumper in the fourth quarter.

Miller said giving these players more minutes was nice, but he’s already comfortable giving many players minutes as Pezold, who typically starts, came off the bench prior to being named Player of the Game.

“I told the boys we have eight starters,” Miller said. “I can only start five of them, so in the early part of the season, we mixed up our starting rotation about every night. Tonight, I wanted to start five seniors. If you can bring 18 points of a game off the bench, that’s a testament to the depth we have on our team.”

North Callaway (2-0 EMO) played at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Montgomery County (5-4, 3-0 EMO) on Tuesday before traveling to Hallsville (6-1) on Dec. 27.

Community hosted Van-Far (4-4) on Tuesday prior to playing Sweet Springs (2-6) in the New Franklin Basketball Tournament. The Trojans are the No. 6 seed going against the No. 3 Greyhounds at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 3.