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Halaburt headlines Carmel victory at Montini

Joey Halaburt wears No. 2 for the Carmel boys basketball team.

Maybe he should switch to No. 3.

Halaburt, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, hit five 3-pointers in the first three quarters of his team's 79-51 nonconference victory against host Montini on Saturday afternoon.

Carmel - which hasn't played a home game in more than a month - is a team of runs, and Halaburt played a role in them with his ability to shoot from 3-point land.

But postgame Halaburt was only interested in talking about his team, which won its fourth straight and improved to 10-9.

"It was fun," Halaburt said, "It was a good team win for us. We needed it. It's four in a row. We need to keep it going."

His coach, Zach Ryan, was pleased not only with Halaburt's output but that of his entire squad. Ten players scored, four in double figures. The Corsairs raced out to a 47-33 halftime lead and never looked back.

"The last few games we've actually had our whole team together, so our offense is starting to click a little better," Ryan said. "We really struggled shooting the ball early in the year. We kept telling these guys, 'Eventually it will change. It's going to turn.'"

But Halaburt was the headliner, especially early on. He hit a 3 to score his team's first points, which turned into an 8-2 run. The Corsairs proceeded to put together an 11-2 spurt to end the first quarter. Halaburt didn't contribute to that, but he made up for it in the second quarter.

His 3 from the left corner with 7:14 left sparked a 7-1 run. Later he ended a 9-0 run with another 3, which came shortly after the same shot was nailed down by junior guard Kimahri Wilson.

Wilson and another junior guard, Syone Usma-Harper, each scored 11. Sophomore guard Bryce Moore added 17, with a devil-may-care attitude toward attacking the basket.

"I started the game taking a lot of jump shots, and I saw they weren't falling," Moore said. "I felt that attacking the cup was good for us, (to get) easy layups."

It might seem on the surface like it was a tough afternoon for Montini (3-12), but the Broncos placed three players in double figures - juniors Jalen McBride and Jemari Moore with 11, while sophomore Andrew Stokes led the team with 17, 11 in the first half. His 3 from the top left with 3:51 to go in the first quarter pulled Montini with 15-13.

But two points was as close as the Broncos could get the rest of the way.

"I think we're going to get this back on track," said Stokes, who added 3 rebounds. "We're going to get in the gym, work harder, keep on bonding as a team."

Rebounding was a bugaboo for the Broncos, as Carmel held a 35-15 advantage, including 13 on the offensive end. Junior A.J. Ashford led Montini with 5 rebounds, 2 offensive.

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