By Quint Turner

Traveling 13,334 miles from their hometown of Warrandyte, Australia, the Venom met the Mavericks Wednesday night in the second game of their U.S. West Coast road trip. Barrett Carlow led the Mavs to an impressive 67-40 win, putting up 23 points to help fill the void left by Spencer Linton and Taylor England (both were out, but are expected to play on Friday). Michael De Lacy was the top scorer for the Venom squad with 10 points.

The Mavs played an amazing first quarter. The team went up 11-2 after a 9-1 run that was capped by a Torin Dooley three, and they never looked back. Before the game was put out of reach, De Lacy got a tough offensive rebound in traffic then put the ball back for the hard two. But on the next Venom possession, Carlow stole a pass and then scored on a breakaway to make it 13-5 Mavs. He then went on to score six points in a row to give the Mavs a 17-5 lead.

The Venom looked shaken in the first, missing nearly every shot (thanks to good man-to-man pressure) and had a few turnovers that didn’t help either. After the first, the Mavericks led 21-5.

The boys from Australia came out swinging in the second, as they got within 1o after Justin Ronan-Black scored back-to-back threes. The Venom looked like they had a shot to come back as the Mavs started slowing down the pace. However, Meadowdale extended that lead to 17 after Garrett Walsh saved the ball from going out of bounds, and the ball wound up in Grantland Over’s hands, and he swished a three to make it 28-11. Dooley and Matt Hirsch, the two offensive quarterbacks of the Mavericks, were taken out for the second, and the play of the young Mavericks showed a lot of promise for the future. At the half, the Mavs were up 33-13.

The third quarter was incredibly fast-paced, as the Venom started out with an aggressive style to try to stage a comeback. However, that type of offense leaves a lot of holes in the defense, and the Mavs exposed them. Dooley and Hirsch came back into the game, but the Venom got a 7-0 run early on to close the gap to 36-20. Their full court press was effective for the first part of the quarter, but then the Mavs figured it out. Dooley had great back-to-back steals on Venom passes for easy layups to make it 44-20. Charlie White followed up with a pass right to Carlow for an easy lay-in to give Meadowdale a 49-24 lead. By the end of the third quarter, the score was 56-28.

The fourth was the only quarter where the Mavs were outscored (and even then it was by just one point). Kenley Ackerman made back-to-back threes with 4:30 to bring the score to 62-33, and the Mavs finished strong with a 67-40 win.

Meadowdale’s next game is at home on Friday against Everett, starting at 7:15 p.m.

Meadowdale scoreboard: Kenley Ackerman 8; Charlie White 6; Garrett Walsh 3; Barrett Carlow 23; Tyler Ackerman 2; Grantland Over 3; Matt Hirsch 8; Brian Feldhaus 3; Torin Dooley 9

Sports correspondent Quint Turner is a sophomore at Meadowdale High School.