Rockets use three-point shooting to cruise past Owatonna 97-61

In the biggest matchup of the season and against the best team the Owatonna boys basketball team has faced thus far in Rochester John Marshall, the Huskies were simply outplayed in every facet of the game.
With a trio of Rockets reaching double figures, Rochester John Marshall coasted to a 97-61 win over the Huskies to remain perfect in the Big Nine Conference.
“They were really good tonight,” commented head coach Josh Williams. “They beat us literally in every facet of the game.”
John Marshall jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, leading by double digits for the vast majority of the contest. Much of which, was due to the hot shooting from beyond the arc. Five three-pointers came in the first half with three of them falling back-to-back-to-back to give the Rockets a commanding 18-8 lead early in the first half.  
Then Jay Sullivan gave the Huskies a boost.
Connecting on four-straight buckets, the senior guard managed to score 10 points, cutting the lead to 24-17 midway through the half.  In 25 minutes of action, Sullivan was the lone bright spot for the Huskies offensively, scoring a team-high 20 points.
“Jay (Sullivan) was definitely dialed in tonight. He was the one guy on the floor that I though offensively was the lone bright spot,” added Williams. “It was probably his best game of the season.”
Suddenly, the Huskies went cold and the Rockets started to heat back up, finishing the half on a 14-6 run with Dedoch Chan connecting on a layup as time expired to extend the lead to 47-29.
The Second half was when the wheels started to fall off defensively for the Huskies.
John Marshall exploded out of the gates and managed to generate a 16-6 run early with most of the points coming from the free-throw line. Of 21 attempts in the second half, the Rockets connected on 17 on their way to shooting 75 percent from the line for the game.
Despite holding Matthew Hurt to just seven points in the first half, the highly-touted forward found a way to hurt Owatonna despite seeing a double-team for much of the contest.
Hurt would connect on 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, four of which, came consecutively after Williams was assessed a technical after Andrew Jackson fouled out. Hurt finished the contest with 21 points, 14 coming in the second half.
If losing one big man to face one of the best players wasn’t enough, the Huskies played the final eight minutes of the contest without Dalton Kubista as well. Kubista, who scored just 14 points, fouled out after receiving a technical foul just minutes before Jackson fouled out.
The Rockets out-scored the Huskies 50-32 in the second half, shooting shooting 54.9 from the field and just 40 percent from three-point range. Joining Hurt in double figures was Isaiah Walden and Chan, who scored 19 and 23 points respectively. Nothing just seemed to work for the Huskies, the moment Hurt received the ball and the defense sucked in to defend, it was kicked back out to a wide open shooter.
“Our defensive rotations were as bad as they’ve been all year. Easily our poorest performance against the best team we’ve seen all year,” Williams added.
As for the Huskies, it was an offensive game to forget. Owatonna was 1-for-12 from three point range, with seven misses coming in the first half. The Huskies shot 45 percent from the field for the contest.
With the Rockets holding a 40-point lead late in the second half, the final three minutes were played with a running clock.
 The Huskies are back in action Saturday against Red Wing at OHS.