Boys basketball: Damhoff, Price combine for 44 as Fulton steamrolls Morrison

FULTON – The Fulton Steamers came out red-hot shooting from beyond the 3-point line in their Thursday night home game against the Morrison Mustangs, hitting five 3s on their way to a 13-point first-quarter lead.

That momentum carried forward for the rest of the game, as the Steamers dominated defensively and kept up their hot shooting in the second and third quarters to secure a 57-27 nonconference win.

In the first 2:12, Fulton set the tone with an 8-0 run.

The opening surge was sparked by 6-foot-7 junior forward Baylen Damhoff, who scored 10 of his 24 points in the opening quarter, connecting on a top-of-the-key 3 for a 14-6 lead around the one-minute mark, then putting back a miss for a 19-6 advantage in the last few seconds.

Damhoff credited his fast start to his work in the practice gym.

“It was a lot of practice. In practice we worked on me getting inside, going up strong,” he said. “So I took what we practiced and brought it into the game. It worked out well.”

In the second quarter, Ethan Price was the go-to scorer for the Steamers, scoring 12 points to ignite a 20-2 run.

Price went 1 for 2 from the free-throw line to start his scoring surge in the first two minutes, then hit a top-of-the-key 3 between a putback and a layup for a 27-8 lead. His two free throws with 1:07 left made it 39-8 Fulton at halftime.

“Just momentum, all the energy going into the game. The fans were great,” Price said of how he heated up in the second quarter. “It’s a lot easier to knock down shots when your team’s rolling and you’ve got a lot of confidence.”

A Chase Newman layup was the only basket the Mustangs managed to score in the second quarter. With strong defense on and off the ball, the Steamers forced missed shot after missed shot, along with several turnovers.

By limiting two of Morrison’s best scorers, Fulton never allowed it to build momentum.

“No. 30 [Ryan Eads] right there, he took one of their better guys [Danny Mouw], and he made him put up zero points,” Price said. “And then I guarded their second-best guy, and we shut him down, too.”

The Steamers continued their assault in the third quarter, led by a second Damhoff scoring surge.

The junior forward added 10 more points with a dunk, a putback and two 3-pointers about 20 seconds apart. The second 3 gave Fulton a 49-12 lead with 2:18 to play.

“We stress on getting the ball inside, having the defense collapse, and then kicking out,” Damhoff said of the 3-point shooting success. “We come in early in the mornings to get that done. We put in a lot of extra work just to get what we take to practice in the game, and it works out very well for us.”

Price sank two free throws in the final minute of the third, before a Brenden Martin buzzer-beater layup made it a 51-18 game entering the final quarter.

The Steamers pulled their starters early in the fourth quarter, and the Mustangs soon followed suit. A 9-6 Morrison run closed out the game.

Damhoff made four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 24 points to go with 10 rebounds. Price hit three 3s on the way to 20 points, and also snagged seven rebounds.

Newman and Martin led the Mustangs with eight points and one block apiece.